Though the 76-year-old British-born singer/songwriter Elton John has announced the end of his touring days, his impact on music and music history will never be forgotten. Case in point: the songs below.
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Though John is known for songs like “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and “Bennie and the Jets,” the flamboyant dresser and fabulous musician has also helped pen a number of songs for other artists, some famous and some lesser so.
[RELATED: 4 Songs You Didn’t Know Bebe Rexha Wrote for Other Artists]
Indeed, below are five songs that John helped write for other artists. Check out these five songs you likely didn’t know Elton John wrote for other artists.
1. “Easy as Life,” Tina Turner featuring Angélique Kidjo
Written by Elton John, Tim Rice
This song, which was performed by the iconic Tina Turner and Angélique Kidjo, comes from the 1999 Elton John and Tim Rice concept album. John wrote the music and Rice wrote the lyrics. “Easy as Life” is the third track on the record, which was used as the inspiration for the 2000 Broadway musical performance of Aida, then a new rendition of the opera from the 1800s, which itself was based on a children’s book. Other high-profile names to feature on the Elton-Rice offering are Lenny Kravitz, the Spice Girls, and many more.
This is the moment when the gods expect me
To beg for help but I won’t even try
I want nothing in this world but myself to protect me
But I won’t lie down, roll over and die
All I have to do is to forget how much I love him
All I have to do is put my longing to one side
Tell myself that love’s an ever-changing situation
Passion would have cooled and all the magic would have died
2. “Sartorial Eloquence,” Tom Robinson
Written by Elton John, Tom Robinson
While Elton John released a version of this song, which he wrote with British artist Tom Robinson, on his 1980 album, 21 at 33, the song was first cut by Robinson some months earlier in 1979. Robinson released his version on the 16-track album, Cabaret 79: Glad to Be Gay, which was recorded at a series of Gay Pride shows in 1979 to mark the 10th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots.
You’ve a certain sartorial eloquence
And a style that’s almost of your own
You’ve got the knack of being so laid-back
It’s like talking to the great Unknown
You’ve got a self-sufficient swept-back hairdo
Pretty certain that you’ve got it made
Oh your lifestyle shows in the clothes you chose
Sitting pretty in the masquerade
3. “Empty Sky,” Roy Everett
Written by Elton John, Bernie Taupin
Released in May of 1969, “Empty Sky” written by John and Bernie Taupin went to obscure British singer Roy Everett at first. The burgeoning songwriting pair were, at the time, writing songs for hire. Not long after Everett released his version, however, John released his debut LP, also named Empty Sky. The record, which was released just weeks after Everett released this song in early June, opened with this track.
I’m not a rat to be spat upon locked up in this room
These eyes that look towards the sun
At night look towards the moon
Every day, the swallows play in the clouds of love
Make me wish that I had wings, to take me high above
And I looked high, saw the empty sky
If I could only, could only fly
I’d drift with them in between this space
But no man can fly from this place
4. “Sixty Years On,” Hayden Wood
Written by Elton John, Bernie Taupin
“Sixty Years On,” released on Elton’s 1970 self-titled album, which he dropped in April of that year, was first released just a couple of months earlier in February of 1970 by obscure New Zealand artist Hayden Wood. There’s a piano line in the song below at about 12 seconds that sounds like it inspired the Coldplay song, “Clocks.”
Who’ll walk me down to the church when I’m sixty years of age
When the ragged dog they gave me has been ten years in the grave
And the senorita play guitar, play it just for you
My rosary has broken, my beads have all slipped through
You’ve hung up your great coat and you’ve laid down your gun
You know the war you fought in wasn’t too much fun
And the future you’re giving me holds nothing for the gun
I’ve no wish to be living sixty years on
5. “Skyline Pigeon,” Roger James Cooke
Written by Elton John, Bernie Taupin
“Skyline Pigeon,” written by longtime partners John and Bernie Taupin, was released on John’s 1969 debut album, Empty Sky. The song was released prior to that by English singers Guy Darrell and Roger James Cooke, each releasing their own independent versions, in 1968.
Turn me loose from your hands
Let me fly to distant lands
Over green fields, trees and mountains
Flowers and forest fountains
Home along the lanes of the skyway
For this dark and lonely room
Projects a shadow cast in gloom
And my eyes are mirrors
Of the world outside
Thinking of the ways
That the wind can turn the tide
And these shadows turn
From purple into grey
Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images
