Duets is the twenty-fourth studio album by the English singer-songwriter Elton John, released in 1993.
Duets was released on a single CD, a single cassette and also as a double vinyl LP in the UK, with a slightly different running order. It was initially a Christmas project of John's, but that soon grew into an album, Elton John's Christmas Party, of its own. The live version of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" with George Michael, track number 15 on the album, had already become a UK/US No. 1 hit in 1991. Three singles were released from the album in Britain: "True Love" (with Kiki Dee, reached #2), "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" (with drag queen RuPaul, reached #7) and "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" (with Marcella Detroit, reached #24). The album debuted at No. 7 in the UK. This is one of only 3 album released between 1983 and 2016 without John's guitar player, Davey Johnstone. In the US, it was certified gold and platinum in January 1994 by the RIAA.
Producers – Barry Beckett, P.M. Dawn, Stuart Epps, Don Henley, Elton John, Nik Kershaw, Steve Lindsey, George Michael, Giorgio Moroder, Greg Penny, Chris Rea, Chris Thomas, Don Was, Narada Michael Walden and Stevie Wonder.
Associate Producer on "True Love" – Louis Biancaniello
Executive Producers – Steve Brown, Ray Cooper and Elton John.
Production Supervision – Greg Penny
Production Coordination – Stephanie Andrews, Debra Johnson, Julie Larson, Janice Lee, Lisa Louie, Connie Pappas-Hillman, Cynthia Shiloh, Toby Taibi, Sam Stell and Kevin Walden.
Engineers – Jim Champagne, Ed Cherney, Mark Evans, Mike Fossenkemper, David Frazer, Ron Jacobs, Jon Ingoldsby, Paul McKenna, David Nicholas, Csaba Petucz, Brian Reeves, Marc Reyburn, Matt Still, Gabe Veltri and Frank Wolf.
Assistant Engineers – Van Arden, Dominick Barbera, Dan Bosworth, Jim Champagne, Todd Childress, Shaun de Ego, Jim DeMain, Billy Gabor, John Hendricksen, Amy Hughes, Steve Holroyd, Pete Lewis, Charles Paakkari, Thomas Rickert, Rail Jon Rogut, Brian Scheuble, Matt Still and Ben Wallach.
Mixed by Van Arden, Ed Cherney, Mike Fossenkemper, David Frazer, Jon Ingoldsby and Bill Schnee.
Mix Assistants – Dominick Barbera, Todd Childress, Steve Holroyd and Matt Still.
Mix Consultant – Chris Lang
Recorded at Ocean Way Recording, Conway Recording Studios & Capitol Studios (Hollywood, CA); A&M Studios & Wonderland Studios (Los Angeles, CA); Tarpan Studios (San Rafael, CA); Soundtrack Studios (New York City, NY); Bosstown Recording Studio (Atlanta, GA); Woodland Studio (Nashville, TN); Sol Studios (Cookham, Berskhire, UK), The Town House (London, UK), Olympic Studios (Barnes, West London) & Wembley Arena (Wembley Park, London).
Mixed at Ocean Way Recording, Soundtrack Studios, A&M Studios, Tarpan Studios, Wonderland Studios, The Townhouse, Schnee Studio (N. Hollywood, CA); Skip Saylor Recording (Los Angeles, CA); Record One (Sherman Oaks, CA); Metropolis Studios (Chiswick, West London).
Digital Editing: Pete Fausone and R.R. Harlan
Mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering (Hollywood, CA).
Photography: Brian Aris, Brad Branson, Mark Contratto, Paul Cox, Robert Goldstein, Stephen Harvey, Dominique Issermann, Harry Langdon, Sophie Muller, Hideo Odia, Albert Sanchez, Randee St. Nicholas, Alan Titmuss, Albert Watson and Firooz Zahedi.
