All the Young Girls Love Alice (1973)Īccording to some liner notes, this driving rocker from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was penned about Alice Cooper before being hurriedly rewritten to be about a tragic lesbian schoolgirl sex worker. A vintage 70s Dr Marten’s-stomping ballad. This lesser-known cut from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road showcases similar piano skills to those Elton brought to his version of the Who’s Pinball Wizard in the film Tommy. Blue Eyes (1982)Ī mid-career, Grammy-nominated gem, laden with dollops of trademark melancholy (“Blue eyes … holding back the tears, holding back the pain.”) 40. Photograph: Shinko Music/Getty Images 41. The song was one of the first to use the talkbox, a wacky effects-pedal.Įlton John live at Nippon Budokan, February 1st, 1974, Tokyo, Japan. Three years after Rocket Man, space travel again provides inspiration via 1950s comic character Dan Dare. With the crazy outfits, barmy glasses and wheelbarrows of cocaine of the 70s far behind him, the post-throat op Elton uses his deeper range and older man’s gravitas to maximum effect. This is a beautiful song about a fading love. When Love Is Dying (with Leon Russell) (2010)Įlton’s first ever US performance was supporting the late Leon Russell, who shared vocal tips and decades later, joined Elton for the album The Union. Please (1995)Ī touching song from Made in England, which finds Elton in the role of elder statesman with nothing to prove except his capacity for love, and pleading “let me grow old with you”. The Ballad of Blind Tom (2013)įrom late period, minimalist gem The Diving Board, EJ evokes the poetry and spiralling piano runs of his early years with this lovely insight into the mind of a blind Deep South bluesman. A fine early career effort from his youthful rhythm and blues outfit. Recorded when Sir Elton Hercules John was still Pinner, Middlesex teenager Reg Dwight, a classically trained pub pianist and occasional session musician. Overshadowed by Honky Chateau’s bigger hit, Rocket Man, this brassier single finds Elton in playful mood: “Time to drink whisky!” 47. New lyricist Gary Osbourne doesn’t yet conjure the same magic. Elton starts a six-year break from otherwise career-long songwriting partner Bernie Taupin.
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