There are few, if any, songs in the last sixty years that capture the tender awkwardness felt in the first stages of love, like Elton John’s “Your Song.” Part of the reason it does such a good job is that such young stars wrote it. John was 22, and his writing partner and lyricist Bernie Taupin was still only a teenager when “Your Song” was composed. The song is beautifully humble, expressing a true heartfelt sincerity, embracing ramblings on and real-time corrections. What started as scribbles over breakfast became one of the world’s favorite ballads, even reassuring John Lennon about the direction British music was heading.
The Romantic Simplicity of “Your Song”
“Your Song” had humble beginnings. As ever in the Bernie Taupin and Elton John partnership, Taupin thought of poetic lyrics first for John to write the music for later. Taupin was only seventeen when he wrote the future top-ten hit, but he still recalled the day “Your Song” was written, “I scribbled the lyric down on a lined notepad at the kitchen table of Elton’s mother’s apartment in the London suburb of Northwood Hills, breakfast time sometime in 1969. That’s it. Plain and simple.”
Plain and simple is quite right, too. “Your Song” beautifully expresses a love that is pure and simple, a bumbling confession of devotion from a young and unsophisticated person. But that’s what makes it so wonderful. The lyrics are self-aware and such a genuine articulation of clumsy, childlike adoration. The rambling, thinking-out-loud lyrics of “If I was a sculptor, but then again no” show how full the song is of ideas, openly searching to find the perfect description of such overwhelming feelings. It’s so sweet how there’s a nervous energy, a fondness that is bursting at the seams. The wonderful line of “my gift is my song, and this one’s for you” redeems the clumsiness, not that it needs much, to reassure the loved one that they are truly receiving all they can be offered.
The music itself is really lovely, complementing the warm and poetic lyrics. John’s piano dances innocently around the vocal melody, its flourishes subtly mirroring the welcome distractions of early love. “Your Song” starts only being accompanied by the piano, but very sneakily, and quite quickly, has a full arrangement. It’s a testament to how tastefully and expertly the rest of the song is constructed, as its build-up is barely noticeable when, all of a sudden, there’s a string section, a lead acoustic guitar, drums, and a double bass. It’s restrained, but also doesn’t hold back at all. I guess when you’re in love, you don’t really look out for the buildup, but just feel it slowly, then notice it all of a sudden.
How “Your Song” Became So Loved
It’s funny, really, that “Your Song” became so well-known and loved because Elton John wasn’t initially bothered about recording it. “Your Song” was actually first recorded in 1970 by the American rock band, Three Dog Night. John was supporting the group on tour when he offered them the song as a gift. Three Dog Night did record it, but never released it as a single. They kindly wanted John, an up-and-coming artist, to have a proper go with it. John released “Your Song” as a B-side to “Take Me To The Pilot,” but it was receiving much more airtime from radio DJs. “Your Song” was then switched to the A-side, making it number 8 on the Billboard chart.
“Your Song” was also rated highly by critics, with the NME saying that the song was “glowing and strangely haunting, the scoring is smooth and delicate, and the performance is symptomatic of a new era in pop idols.” It wasn’t just the magazines that loved it either. It seemed that “Your Song” was the first in a while to be deemed as something special, with even John Lennon noting that “I remember hearing Elton John’s ‘Your Song’, heard it in America—it was one of Elton’s first big hits—and remember thinking, ‘Great, that’s the first new thing that’s happened since we [The Beatles] happened.‘ It was a step forward. There was something about his vocal that was an improvement on all the English vocals until then. I was pleased with it.” It’s difficult to imagine greater words of encouragement for a young artist.
The greatly loved song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, placed in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list in both 2004 and 2011, and was certified 3x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Aside from its accolades, “Your Song” has been shown appreciation in its many covers. Rod Stewart, Ellie Gouldingand, perhaps most notably, Ewan McGregor with Alessandro Safina for Moulin Rougeall have recorded versions. “Your Song” is an undeniable classic that continues to resonate with each generation. The simple clumsiness of love will always exist, and we will all keep trying to find a way to articulate it.
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