53 Years Ago Today, Elton John Was at No. 1 With a Fan Favorite Song He Thought Would Fail

On this day (April 13) in 1973, Elton John was at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Bennie and the Jets.” With its lyrics about a futuristic android band and an arrangement inspired by glam rock, John didn’t believe the song would be a hit. However, his label ignored his protests and released it anyway. It quickly climbed the charts, becoming his second No. 1 in the United States. Moreover, it remains a favorite among his fans more than five decades later.

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“Bennie and the Jets” was the B-side of “Candle in the Wind” in the United Kingdom. That moving hit wasn’t released as a single in the United States, though. Instead, MCA Records chose to release this as a single from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. John pushed back against this decision, sure that the song would flop. He may have been right, too, if not for the legendary radio director Rosalie Trombley at the Windsor, Ontario-based station CKLW.

[RELATED: 3 Elton John Songs That Bernie Taupin Didn’t Write]

According to Michigan Public, Trombley put the track in heavy rotation. Fortunately for John, listeners in Detroit, Michigan, picked up the Canadian station and got hooked on the song. Soon, it became the No. 1 song in the region. Soon, radio stations in other markets started giving the song heavy airplay. Before long, it was soaring up the charts in the United States and Canada.

How Elton John and Bernie Taupin Created This Classic Hit

“Bennie and the Jets” is another example of how well Elton John and Bernie Taupin work together as a songwriting team. They came at the song’s composition from very different places. However, their inspirations fit perfectly together.

As usual, John wrote the music for the song. According to Songfacts, his original composition was an homage to glam rock, which was popular at the time. He also looked to hits from the past. His falsetto vocals on the track are a nod to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Taupin, on the other hand, pulled from his love of science fiction and the German photographer Helmut Newton to create the lyrics.

“I’d always had this wacky science fiction idea about a futuristic rock and roll band of androids fronted by some androgynous kind of Helmut Newton-style beauty,” Taupin said. “I’m not sure if it came to me in a dream or was some way the subconscious effect of watching Kubrick on drugs. Either way, it was definitely something that was totally formed as a concept, and something that could have morphed into any number of populist items,” he added.

“Bennie and the Jets” was more than a hit for Elton John. It also landed him a spot on the hit show Soul Train. He was the third white performer and first white superstar to appear on the show. The episode in which he performed this track aired in May 1975, six months before David Bowie made his Soul Train debut.

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