Only a handful of musicians have earned the right to be called a "legend," and one of
them is Elton John.
His songs have become legends of their own, particularly hits like "Rocket Man" and "Tiny
Dancer."
Here's what inspired these famous Elton John hits.
A fan favorite from Elton John's 1971 album Madman Across the Water, "Tiny Dancer" was
a minor hit upon initial release and didn't truly become one of the singer's best known
songs until its inclusion in Cameron Crowe's early '70s period piece Almost Famous, where
a bus full of rock musicians triumphantly sings the tune.
It's not about a real-life ballerina that fit in John's pocket, nor is it about Tony
Danza, as a famous mishearing of the song would suggest.
It's the song's lyricist and long-time Elton John collaborator, Bernie Taupin, who has
shed some light on this one.
He's said it's a reflection about the time they spent in sunny California, and the women
they met there.
"We came to California in the fall of 1970, and sunshine radiated from the populace.
I was trying to capture the spirit of that time, encapsulated by the women we met.
They were free spirits, sexy in hip-huggers and lacy blouses, very ethereal, the way they
moved."
So those are the "dancers," but why exactly are they "tiny"?
Taupin chalked that up to a little bit of poetic license.
Elton John's 1973 hit "Daniel" isn't a romantic love song or an allegorical tale.
The titular fellow is a Vietnam War veteran struggling to readjust to his regular, civilian
life after enduring some horrific combat experiences, a period made more difficult by Americans'
polarized attitudes about that conflict.
Taupin explained:
"I'd seen this [...] story about how many of the soldiers that were coming back from
'Nam were these simple sort of down home country guys who were generally embarrassed by both
the adulation and, depending on what part of the country you came from, the animosity
that they were greeted by.
For the most part, they just wanted to get back to a normal life, but found it hard."
All that is made abundantly clear with the song's final verse, which ultimately got cut
from the song altogether.
According to Taupin, it wasn't a big deal.
" [...] that used to happen all the time with our songs.
I would often overwrite, and Elton felt it necessary to edit somewhat.
But believe me, it didn't say anything that the rest of the song didn't say."
Elton John played piano and sang backup on John Lennon's 1974 single "Whatever Gets You
Thru the Night."
Lennon didn't think the song would go over that well, but John thought he knew a #1 hit
when he heard one.
So, the Beatle placed a friendly wager with the "Benny and the Jets" songwriter: If the
song topped the charts, Lennon would have to join him on stage at a future concert.
In November 1974, "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night" hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100,
and Lennon, true to his word, joined John onstage at a concert at Madison Square Garden.
That would ultimately be Lennon's last live performance before he was shot to death outside
of his New York apartment by an unhinged, obsessed fan in 1980.
Elton John and Bernie Taupin were devastated by the loss, and the latter tried to process
his grief by penning the words to "Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)."
Taupin has talked about how he doesn't actually remember writing it, and says that the song
just kind of happened.
Elton John had a similar experience writing the music, saying,
"It said everything I wanted to say without sounding too cloying.
I thought it was so perfect for me that I just sat down and wrote the song immediately."
"Candle in the Wind" was Elton John's song about the brief, fragile nature of life, and
even though it first appeared on his 1973 album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, it didn't
hit the top 10 in the U.S. until John released a live version in 1987.
Both versions discuss the life and tragic end of screen legend Marilyn Monroe, who died
at age 36 in 1962.
Then, in 1997, John and Bernie Taupin altered the song into a tribute to Princess Diana,
who died, like Monroe, at age 36.
Lyrics were changed from "Norma Jean" to "English Rose", and John sang it at the beloved royal's
televised funeral.
A recording of that performance was released under the title "Candle in the Wind 1997,"
where it went on to become the best selling single in U.K. history and topped the U.S.
pop chart for 14 weeks, with the proceeds benefiting some of Diana's favorite causes.
And yet the sentiment and feeling behind the original isn't absolutely about just Monroe.
Taupin has said:
"It's not that I didn't have a respect for her.
It's just that the song could just as easily have been about James Dean or Jim Morrison,
Kurt Cobain.
I mean, it could have been about Sylvia Plath or Virginia Woolf.
I mean, basically, anybody, any writer, actor, actress, or musician who died young."
"Border Song," the first Elton John song to hit the charts in the U.S., stalled at #92
on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970.
A choir-driven, gospel-tinged tune that showcases John's vocals range and piano work, the track
from Elton John made quite the auspicious bit of exposure for the legendary performer.
It's such a legit piece of music that Aretha Franklin covered it later in 1970, and she
took it into the top 40.
So what's it about?
Taupin doesn't claim the song is about anything or anyone in particular, while John thinks
some of the most powerful lyrics suggest that it's about the alienation and outsiderness
Taupin felt when he moved from his home in rural England into big, bustling, foggy London
Town in the late 1960s.
One of the best and most popular athletes in the world in the mid-1970s was tennis superstar
Billie Jean King.
The highest ranked player in the world at one point, by 1975, she'd amassed 12 Grand
Slam singles tournament wins and 12 doubles championships.
That doesn't even count her most famous match, the 1973 "Battle of the Sexes" exhibition,
in which she soundly beat male competitor Bobby Riggs.
In 1975, King temporarily refocused her energies on building a new sports league she'd helped
found: World TeamTennis.
King also coached the member franchise Philadelphia Freedoms in 1974, and around that time, Elton
John was so enamored with her and such a fan of King's new venture that he asked Bernie
Taupin to write up some lyrics.
At first, Taupin balked, saying that tennis just wasn't something he could possibly write
about.
So he didn't, not really.
Instead, the song "Philadelphia Freedom" builds on references to classic Philadelphia soul
music and taps into the growing "Bicentennial Fever" gripping the U.S. in the lead-up to
1976.
Inspired by the dazzling human achievement of space travel and particularly by NASA successfully
landing men on the Moon in 1969, the late '60s and early '70s were a fruitful time for
songwriters writing songs about space.
Alongside David Bowie's "Space Oddity" in this mini-genre is Elton John's "Rocket Man,"
a meditation on the ho-hum, humdrum life of an astronaut.
"That's a very nice rendering, Dave I think you've improved a great deal."
Bernie Taupin says got the idea for the 1972 single while driving one night across in the
tranquil English countryside and looking up at the sky.
He saw either a shooting star or airplane streak across the sky, and it made him think
of astronauts.
By the early '70s, NASA had launched half a dozen manned flights into space, which,
to Taupin, turned the once unthinkably awesome profession into an almost "everyday occupation."
As Taupin kept driving, the song's opening lyrics popped into his head, fully formed.
School and public shootings happen with alarming regularity in the U.S. these days, and location
names like "Parkland," "Aurora," and "Sandy Hook" serve as shorthand for the horrible
tragedies that happened in those places.
But when it happened on American soil for one of the first times, in the '60s, it was
sad, terrible, and also completely unexpected.
On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman walked up to the observation deck of Austin's University
of Texas Tower and started shooting seemingly at random.
Over the course of 90 minutes, Whitman killed 17 people and injured more than 30, until
he was killed by police.
That terrible event led to a growing culture of violence and fear.
It also led to the Elton John/Bernie Taupin collaboration "Ticking," a cut off the Elton
John's 1974 album Caribou.
When Elton played the song at a concert in England in July 2003, he said,
"It's a song that deals with violence in America in about the year 1973.
When Bernie [Taupin] wrote the song, we thought things would get better not worse.
Well, here we are 30 years on, down the line, and things have gotten worse.
And so the song is more relevant than when it was written."
The 1983 album Too Low for Zero is credited to Elton John, but he let his loyal lyricist
Bernie Taupin have the dedication:
"Hey Toni, this one's from me to you.
Love, Bernie."
Toni is Toni Russo, a model, a sister of actress Rene Russo, and Taupin's second wife.
Toni Russo is also the main inspiration for the record's catchy-but-maudlin breakout hit
"I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues."
Taupin was overseas and feeling vulnerable, and so he wrote some correspondence that he
later turned into a song.
He later said:
"Basically, it's a letter home with a small tip included about making the most of time,
not wishing it away just because you can't be with the one you love.
Time is precious; read books, paint a picture, bake a cake.
Just don't wallow, don't be content."
That letter became the song, although Taupin regrets some of the lyrics.
Looking at it in retrospect, he's said
"The whole 'loving you more than I love life itself' is something I would never say now.
It's kind of a crass sentiment and totally false."
"Someone Saved My Life Tonight" is one of Elton John's most anguished songs, and that
anguish came from a very real place.
It was written about coming back from the brink of two heart wrenching and desperate
situations in which Elton John actually found himself, and which he survived both thanks
to longtime friend Bernie Taupin, who then essentially wrote this song about himself.
In the late '60s, John was playing in musician Long John Baldry's band when he met a woman
named Linda Woodrow at a club.
Planning to marry, they moved into an apartment in North London and took in Taupin as a roommate.
In the notes for the John/Taupin tribute "Two Rooms," John explained,
"I went out and got drunk with Long John Baldry and Bernie, and John said I shouldn't get
married.
I knew he was right, but I didn't know how to get out of it, so I just got drunk and
went home and said I'm not getting married."
Taupin added in Two Rooms that "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" was also inspired by an incident
in which John attempted to take his own life while they were flatmates.
Alerted that something was wrong by the smell of gas one day, Taupin went into the kitchen
the two songwriters shared.
He recalls,
"And there's Elton lying on the floor with the gas oven open.
My immediate thing should have been 'Oh my god, he's tried to kill himself.'
But I started laughing because he'd got the gas oven open, he was lying on a pillow and
he'd opened all the windows."
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).