Been writing this thing for over a decade and never featured Elton John, the reason being I don't care for most of his stuff, but early in his career he released three singles that were quite good and a fourth that is a classic; Your Song (1970), and before and after his greatest song, Levon (1971) and Rocketman (1972) - the latter the subject of a fascinatingly weird cover by William Shatner. By far, the song I like best is Tiny Dancer (1972) with its glorious chorus. The lyrics are very specific and don't seem to have anything to do with my life, but I've always found the song very moving.
Like almost all of John's songs, the lyrics are by Bernie Taupin with music by Elton. According to this article, some of the lyrics were inspired by Bernie's then-wife, Maxine, who had been into ballet when she was younger and sewed patches on Elton's jeans and jackets when he was starting out.
Tiny Dancer is also the latest installment of Rick Beato's "What Makes This Song Great" series which takes you deeper into the arrangement and structure of the tune. I'd been aware there was a pedal steel on the recording but until Rick isolated the track had not appreciated just how good it was.
The song is also featured in one of my favorite films, Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous, based on his experiences as a 15-year old writer for Rolling Stone magazine (read Cool and Uncool for one of my prior posts on the movie).
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