Editing Tumbleweed Connection (section)

== Reception ==
{{Album ratings
|rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
|rev1score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref name="Erlewine">{{cite web |url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=r10454/review|pure_url=yes}} |title=''Tumbleweed Connection'' |author=[[Stephen Thomas Erlewine]] |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=12 January 2012}}</ref>
|rev2 = ''[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|Christgau's Record Guide]]''
|rev2Score = B−<ref name="Christgau">{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies]]|publisher=[[Ticknor & Fields]]|isbn=089919026X|chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: J|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=J&bk=70|access-date=27 February 2019|via=robertchristgau.com}}</ref>
|rev3 = ''[[Q (magazine)|Q]]''
|rev3score = {{Rating|3|5}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1231613/a/Tumbleweed+Connection.htm |title=Elton John – Tumbleweed Connection CD Album |publisher=Cduniverse.com |date=20 February 1996 |access-date=12 January 2012}}</ref>
|rev4 = ''[[Rolling Stone]]''
|rev4Score = (mixed)<ref name="Landau">{{cite magazine|last=Landau|first=Jon|author-link=Jon Landau|date=18 February 1971|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/tumbleweed-connection-19710218|title=Tumbleweed Connection|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|location=New York|access-date=12 April 2013}}</ref>
|rev5 = ''Rolling Stone'' <small>(deluxe edition)</small>
|rev5Score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}<ref name="Fricke">{{cite magazine|last=Fricke|first=David|author-link=David Fricke|date=4 September 2008|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/tumbleweed-connection-deluxe-edition-20080904|title=Tumbleweed Connection Deluxe Edition|magazine=Rolling Stone|location=New York|access-date=12 April 2013}}</ref>
|rev6 = ''[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]''
|rev6Score = {{Rating|3|5}}<ref name="RSguide">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/elton-john/albumguide|title=Elton John: Album Guide|magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=12 April 2013|at=Portions of this album guide appeared in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (Fireside, 2004).}}</ref>
|rev7 = ''[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]''
|rev7score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/elton_john/reviews/11798 |title=Music Reviews |publisher=Uncut.co.uk |access-date=12 January 2012 |archive-date=19 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519171658/http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/elton_john/reviews/11798 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
|rev8 = ''[[The Village Voice]]''
|rev8Score = C+<ref name="Christgau2">{{cite news|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1970|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-aow/cg16.php|title=Consumer Guide (16)|newspaper=[[The Village Voice]]|location=New York|access-date=5 April 2013}}</ref>
|rev9 = [[Yahoo! Music]] 
|rev9score = (favourable)<ref name="DiMartino">[http://ca.music.yahoo.com/read/review/12052968 ] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718134207/http://ca.music.yahoo.com/read/review/12052968 |date=18 July 2011 }}</ref>
| rev10 = ''[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]''
| rev10Score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Larkin|first=Colin|author-link=Colin Larkin|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music|year=2007|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|edition=4th|isbn=978-0195313734|title-link=Encyclopedia of Popular Music}}</ref>

}}

[[File:Elton John & Bernie Taupin - Tumbleweed Connection; Original Framed Platinum 33 1-3 Record. .jpg|thumb|left|''Tumbleweed Connection'' Platinum Record]]

The album peaked at number two on the [[UK Albums Chart]] and number five on the US [[Billboard 200|''Billboard'' 200]] chart.<ref name="UKchart"/><ref name="EJ_Billboard200">{{citation|url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/elton-john/chart-history/tlp/|title=Elton John Billboard 200 chart history|website=[[Billboard charts|Billboard]]|access-date=12 October 2020
}}</ref> In the US, it was certified gold in March 1971 and platinum in August 1998 by the [[Recording Industry Association of America|RIAA]]. The album sold very quickly in the US, debuting at number 28 on ''Billboard's'' [[Billboard 200|Top LPs]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ggEAAAAMBAJ&q=elton|title=Billboard|date=23 January 1971|publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.|access-date=30 October 2024|via=Google Books}}</ref> an unusually high debut for a new artist at the time, and reached its peak position in just four weeks.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ggEAAAAMBAJ&q=tumbleweed|title=Billboard|date=13 February 1971|publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.|access-date=30 October 2024|via=Google Books}}</ref>

In 2012, ''Tumbleweed Connection'' was ranked number 458 on ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine's list of [[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time|the 500 greatest albums of all time]].

=== Critical reception ===
Reviewing later for [[AllMusic]], [[Stephen Thomas Erlewine]] wrote: 
"Half of the songs don't follow conventional [[Pop music|pop]] song structures; instead, they flow between verses and vague choruses. These experiments are remarkably successful, primarily because Taupin's lyrics are evocative and John's melodic sense is at its best."<ref name="Erlewine" />

[[Robert Christgau]] wrote in his 1981 ''[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|Record Guide]]'': "good melodies and bad Westerns on it. Why do people believe that these latter qualify as songpoems?"<ref name="Christgau" /> (Note: There's an earlier Christgau review of the album, written in 1970 for ''[[The Village Voice]]''). Reviewing for ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', [[David Fricke]] wrote: "1971’s ''Tumbleweed Connection'' needs no improvement; it is one of the best [[country-rock]] albums ever written by London cowboys."<ref name="Fricke" />

[[Robert Hilburn|Robert Hillburn]] wrote for ''[[The Los Angeles Times]]'': "''Tumbleweed Connection'' is that near-perfect album that artists often spend a whole career trying to produce."<ref>{{Cite web|date=30 June 2017|title='Tumbleweed Connection' – An Early Favourite Reissued on Vinyl|url=https://www.eltonjohn.com/stories/tumbleweed-connection-an-early-favourite-reissued-on-vinyl|access-date=13 October 2020|website=eltonjohn.com}}</ref> Dave DiMartino wrote for ''[[Yahoo! Music]]'': "A step up from the slightly more overtly commercial ''Elton John''... ''Tumbleweed'' is beautifully recorded and filled with very fine songs... Bordering on classic status."<ref name="DiMartino" /> In ''[[Rough Guides|The Rough Guide to Rock]]'' (1999), Neil Patrick wrote that the album highlighted John and Taupin's "shared obsession with [[Wild West]] mythology", and deemed it the best of the three albums John released in 1970.<ref name="Patrick">{{cite book |last1=Patrick |first1=Neil |editor1-last=Buckley |editor1-first=Jonathan |editor2-last=Duane |editor2-first=Orla |editor3-last=Ellingham |editor3-first=Mark |editor4-last=Spicer |editor4-first=Al |title=The Rough Guide to Rock |date=1999 |publisher=Rough Guides |edition=2nd |location=London |isbn=1-85828-457-0 |pages=519–521 |chapter=Elton John}}</ref> [[Martin C. Strong]], writing in ''The Great Rock Discography'' (2006), considers the album a "relatively successful attempt at retro [[Americana (music)|Americana]]".<ref name="Strong">{{cite book |last1=Strong |first1=Martin C. |title=The Great Rock Discography |date=2006 |publisher=Canongate Books |location=Edinburgh |isbn=1-84195-827-1 |chapter=Elton John |page=544}}</ref>

In an overview of John's career, Andy Gill of ''[[The Word (UK magazine)|The Word]]'' deemed the album "a full-bore paean to a forgotten America" clearly inspired by the Band's first two albums, but added that "credit should be given for the way that the [[swamp rock|swamp-rock]] sound of 'Ballad Of A Well Known Gun' and 'Son Of Your Father', with its braiding of disparate guitar and piano lines in rhythmic symbiosis, paralleled the contemporary work of real Americans like [[Ry Cooder]] and [[Little Feat]]."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gill |first1=Andy |title=Elton John: Panning for Gold |journal=The Word |date=August 2012 }}</ref> ''[[New Musical Express]]'' contributor [[Charles Shaar Murray]] opined that the record "mined some new ore, and explored a few new things", with Taupin's love of the Band reflected in the lyrics' preoccupation with "the Old West, full of images of guns, fathers, stagecoaches, plantations and the like"; he added: "Buckmaster's orchestrations were played down, and the band worked overtime and really got funky. Apart from Lesley Duncan's 'Love Song', it was virtually raunch all the way, with some really sweet touches carefully placed en route."<ref name="Shaar Murray">{{cite journal |last1=Shaar Murray |first1=Charles |title=Elton John: They Laughed When He Played the Piano |journal=New Musical Express |date=3 February 1973 |url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/elton-john-they-laughed-when-he-played-the-piano |access-date=12 March 2025}}</ref>