Elton John’s discography includes many memorable tunes. Songs like “Rocket Man,” “Bennie and the Jets,” and “Crocodile Rock” have lasted numerous generations and are still popular today. There is one everlasting Elton John song, though, that he believes is “perfect” and that “gets better every time I sing it.” Elton John chose 20 songs that define his life in an interview with Rolling Stone. “Your Song,” one of his early hits, was among the tunes he chose. It’s a love ballad from 1970 that gained John worldwide notoriety.
The song was written by American rock band Three Dog Night, who did not release it as a single because they wanted to give John a chance. Fortunately, John’s rendition was a huge success, and he regards it as a “perfect” tune. He and frequent partner and lyricist Bernie Taupin said it gave them a lot of hope for the future. “What can I say, it’s a flawless song.” “Every time I sing it, it gets better,” John added.
“I remember writing it at my parents’ North London apartment, and Bernie giving me the lyrics, and sitting down at the piano and looking at it and thinking, ‘Oh, my God, this is such a great lyric, I can’t f*** this one up.'” It took approximately 20 minutes to complete, and when I was finished, I called him in, and we both knew. It gave us so much confidence when I was 22 and he was 19.” ‘Your Song’ was written for whom?
“Your Song” lyrics appear to be very personal to Bernie Taupin. However, neither the songwriter nor Elton John have identified who the song is about. In a 1989 Music Connection interview (published by songfacts.com), John stated that, despite the simplistic lyrics, the song is universal since it portrays how young love feels. He’d never be able to sing that now since that’s not how love feels at an older age. “It’s like the perennial ballad ‘Your Song,’ which has got to be one of the most naïve and childish lyrics in the entire repertoire of music, but I think the reason it still stands up is because it was real at the time.
That was exactly what I was feeling. I was 17 years old and it was coming from someone whose outlook on love or experience with love was totally new and naïve. Now I could never write that song again or emulate it because the songs I write now that talk about love coming from people my age usually deal with broken marriages and where the children go. You have to write from where you are at a particular point in time, and ‘Your Song’ is exactly where I was coming from back then.” While “Your Song” was not one of Elton John’s No. 1 singles, it did help put him on the map. He enjoyed a lot of success in the United Kingdom, and with this single, his popularity went abroad. It peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Top 100 in the United States. It peaked at No. 7 in the United Kingdom. Rod Stewart, Ellie Goulding, and Lady Gaga have all recorded renditions of the song.