He matched this new-found level of fame by wearing increasingly elaborate stage costumes and living a lifestyle that matched one of the key lyrics of the song - "burning out his fuse up here alone". His next seven singles went top 10 in either the UK or the US or both, and John began playing bigger and bigger venues as he sold more and more records. It kicked off an incredible purple patch for John. "It felt really peculiar as if they'd gone to see The Osmonds or David Cassidy but taken a wrong turn and somehow ended up at our gig instead." "Screaming girls started appearing in the front rows and outside the stage door, tearfully clinging on to the car as we tried to get away. "We'd stumbled onto a different kind of commerciality, and its success changed our audience," he wrote. People stop and listen to Rocket Man, and you'll finish it and they're singing the outro," he said.Įlton John at the 1975 Rock Music Awards. While he doesn't play piano bars much these days, Tankard is currently busy playing with Goanna, Broderick Smith, Geoff Achison & The Souldiggers, and his own project Tank Dilemma, he still finds himself playing Rocket Man when he does. "You're going to do I Guess That's Why They Call It Blues, you're going to do Your Song, and you're going to do Rocket Man," he said. Like many pianists, Tankard "cut his teeth playing in piano bars", which means that, by default, he was going to end up playing Elton John songs. "It's a great vocal performance and the bit at the end where he hits his falsetto, it's just great." "It's quite hypnotic, and that outro is gorgeous," he said. While that detail might not resonate with most listeners, they definitely pick up on the hypnotic back-and-forth of its two-chord verses and outro. Rocket Man immediately jumped out to Johnstone, who asked John to play it again.īernie Taupin and Elton John pose backstage with their Golden Globe in January 2020. New guitarist Davey Johnstone was sceptical that John and Taupin could work so fast, so John played the three songs for him. Taupin's lyrics were inspired by a Ray Bradbury short story titled The Rocket Man, in which an astronaut has to regularly leave his wife and child to make trips into space, with Taupin taking the novel approach of imagining the life of an astronaut as "just job, five days a week", as opposed to the heroes of the time. On the first morning in the chateau, John had turned three sets of Taupin lyrics into songs before the band awoke. I can't explain it and I don't want to explain it."Īt Château d'Hérouville, Taupin would sit at his typewriter in a room by himself, "bash out his lyrics", as John put it, "and leave them for me on the piano" for John to find in the morning and put to music over breakfast. "I've never sat down with one of Bernie's lyrics and nothing has come out. The international version includes, among others, the UK, Hungary, Italy, Poland, and Portugal."The muse, God, luck: you can give it a name if you want, but I've no idea what it is. Track listings Canon international edition This was then followed by a double platinum and triple platinum certification in April 2016 and August 2017, respectively. In the US the album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 9 and was certified gold for sales of 500,000 copies in October 2008 and platinum for 1,000,000 copies in November 2014. The album was certified platinum in the UK for shipping 300,000 units in February 2010. The album was released on 26 March 2007 to commemorate Elton John's 60th birthday onĢ5 March. All versions include the title track, " Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time)". Worldwide there have been released 17 different versions of the album, including a CD/DVD combo. Rocket Man: The Definitive Hits (retitled Rocket Man: Number Ones for its USA and Canada release, and Just Like Belgium: The Definitive Hits for its Belgian release) is a compilation album by English musician Elton John featuring 13 number one songs and a number of bonus tracks and live renditions.
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