Elton John released his eighth studio album, “Caribou,” on June 28, 1974. The album followed Elton’s 1973 smash “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and includes his iconic tracks “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” and “The Bitch is Back.” The album hit the top of the Billboard 200 chart in mid-July, pushing out “Band on the Run” by Paul McCartney and Wings. It held on at number one for three weeks before it was succeeded by John Denver’s “Back Home Again.”“Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me” also brought Elton chart success, hitting number two on the Hot 100. And though it went on to become one of Elton’s biggest hits, he nearly dropped the track from the album. “I thought it was the worst vocal of all time,” John said of the track to Britain’s New Musical Express. “I said, ‘I hate it . . . so don’t you dare put this on the album.’”