Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone ‘Til touchdown brings me ’round again to find And I think it’s gonna be a long long time In the song, an astronaut muses about his life as he is preparing to blast off into space. It became a big single hit, reaching #2 on the British pop charts and #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 listings. Rocket Man appeared on Elton John’s 1972 album Honky Chateau. Rolling Stone lists it as #245 of its 500 greatest songs of all-time. It is widely considered one of the greatest recordings in music history, and by many accounts one of the most beloved songs ever recorded. The song Rocket Man (the full title is Rocket Man: I Think It’s Going To Be a Long Long Time) is one of the best-known songs in the vast Elton John-Bernie Taupin catalog. As a team, Taupin and John produced ballads, rocking tunes and funky cross-over hits. During the 70s he came out with one blockbuster album after another. I don’t know what’s going to land in front of me.”įollowing the first big Taupin-John hit Your Song in 1970, Elton John embarked on an incredibly productive and versatile career. It’s never changed, the thrill has never gone, because I don’t know what I’m going to get next. If I haven’t got it within 40 minutes, I give up. “I just go into the studio, look at the lyrics for the first time when I put them on the piano, and go. So began a four-decade music-lyrics collaboration which EltonĬheerily describes as “probably the strangest relationship in pop history”: in 46 years, the two have never written a song in the same room, and John never reads Taupin’s lyrics before setting them to music. He wrote the music for several of these and mailed the packet back to Taupin. When Elton arrived for his first meeting, he was handed a sheaf of lyrics by Taupin. The two were introduced in 1967 when each of them answered an ad for musicians in the British magazine New Musical Express. A photo of the two collaborators is shown at left. Photograph: Ed Caraeff.Ī unique feature of Elton John’s career was his decades-long collaboration with lyricist Bernie Taupin. Elton subsequently left high school at age 17 to pursue a career in pop music.īernie Taupin and Elton John, California, 1973. Elton’s recollection is that although he was able to play many compositions after hearing them just one time, he was not a diligent student and was not particularly attracted to classical music. Embed from Getty ImagesĪt age 11, Elton John was awarded a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. Here is a photo of a young Elton John performing in Los Angeles. His parents had an eclectic record collection, and Elton remembers becoming hooked on rock ‘n roll after first hearing Bill Haley and Elvis Presley. His father had been a trumpet player in a semi-professional big band. In 1967 Dwight adopted the stage name “Elton John” as a composite of Elton Dean, saxophonist in his first band, and blues singer and mentor Long John Baldry.īoth of Dwight’s parents were musically inclined. We will then discuss a cover version by Kate Bush, and we will review a “spoken-word” cover by William Shatner.Įlton John was born Reginald Dwight in a suburb of London in 1947. We will review the original performed by Elton John. Hello there! Our song this week is Rocket Man, a remarkably successful pop tune written by Bernie Taupin and Elton John.
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