[1] It was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, after John was forced to pause his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour due to lockdown.

[2] The album includes three singles: "Cold Heart (Pnau remix)" with Dua Lipa, "After All" with Charlie Puth, and "Finish Line" with Stevie Wonder.

A 2022 reissue of the album includes "Merry Christmas" with Ed Sheeran and "Hold Me Closer" with Britney Spears.

The album features several previously released tracks: "Learn to Fly", released in June 2020; "Chosen Family", John's duet with Rina Sawayama on her Sawayama album;[3] Gorillaz' track "The Pink Phantom" from their 2020 album Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez, on which John appears as a guest alongside 6lack; John's cover of the Pet Shop Boys' "It's a Sin" along with Years & Years, released in May 2021;[3] Miley Cyrus' version of "Nothing Else Matters" featuring John alongside various other guests (including Andrew Watt, Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Trujillo and Chad Smith), released in June 2021 from the Metallica tribute album The Metallica Blacklist; and John's collaboration with Lil Nas X "One of Me", from Lil Nas X's debut studio album Montero.

Some of the sessions were recorded under very stringent safety regulations: working with another artist, but separated by glass screens.

[9] It was made in collaboration with director and illustrator Ivan Dixon, who also provided the visuals for Surfaces' song "Bloom", and was produced by Sean Zwan from Studio Showoff.

This was John's first UK number one in 16 years, since 2005's posthumous Tupac Shakur collaboration "Ghetto Gospel".

[17][18] "Finish Line" failed to chart on the Official UK Top 100, but debuted at number 73 on the Official UK Singles Sales Chart Top 100 on 28 January 2022[19] The Lockdown Sessions received generally positive reviews from music critics.

[20] Gary Ryan from NME gave it four out of five stars, saying: "All in all, The Lockdown Sessions' all-bets-off stylistic game of spin-the-bottle feels attuned to 2021's post-genre Spotify world, as Elton continues to further his musical universe".

[26] The album was released on 22 October 2021, and in the OCC's UK midweek chart update on 25 October, the album was described as being in a "four way battle" with Duran Duran's Future Past, Lana Del Rey's Blue Banisters and Biffy Clyro's The Myth of the Happily Ever After for the number-one position.