Looking Back at Elton John’s Biggest Single During the Non-Taupin Years

We all know about the songwriting partnership of Elton John and Bernie Taupin. They’re responsible for a vast majority of the Elton John recording catalog, one of the greatest collections of songs in the history of popular music.

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But there was a brief time when the pair didn’t work together. John kept cranking out hits, including “Little Jeannie”, his biggest ever single success to that point without Taupin as lyricist.

A Temporary Hiatus

The track record of Elton John and Bernie Taupin is simply awe-inspiring. Their undeniable high point came in the first half of the 70s. They worked at an incredibly fast pace during that stretch, cranking out classic albums and massive hit singles with stunning regularity.

John’s commercial hot streak started to falter a bit right around the middle of the decade. And his relationship with Taupin, perhaps strained by so many years of hard work and close proximity to each other, became a bit testy as well.

For the 1978 album A Single Man, John and Taupin decided to go their separate ways. John began writing almost exclusively with Gary Osborne. The two men had formed a friendship when Osborne wrote lyrics for John’s friend Kiki Dee on the 1973 hit “Amoureuse”. They’d eventually deliver a US No. 3 hit with “Little Jeannie” in 1980.

Rock a “Little”

By the time John recorded the 1980 album 21 at 33, Taupin was back in the fold, at least partially. But Osborne also wrote lyrics for several songs on the record. Unlike his method with Taupin, John wrote the music first for “Little Jeannie”. Osborne came through with the lyrics after the fact.

A pair of special guests helped take the song to another level. Jim Horn, one of the best session horn players of that era, laid down the silky saxophone part. And Bill Champlin, of Sons of Champlin and Chicago fame, provided backing vocals.

“Little Jeannie” landed at No. 3 in 1980, John’s highest-charting single in America in four years. Osborne stuck around to write a few more lyrics for John, including on the 1982 hit “Blue Eyes”. By the time the 1983 album Too Low For Zero came around, Bernie Taupin had returned as John’s full-time lyricist.

Behind the Lyrics of “Little Jeannie”

The titular character of “Little Jeannie” has suffered a bit in relationships with other men. “Oh, there were others who would treat you cruel,” John sings. “And, oh, Jeannie/You were always someone’s fool.” It has made her a bit timid when it comes to relationships. “Though you’ve grown beyond your years,” he explains. “You still retain the fears of youth.”

The narrator, by contrast, wants nothing out of her aside from her affection. “And I want you to be my acrobat,” John sings. “I want you to be my lover.” He sings her praises in the refrain that closes out the song: “You stepped into my life from a bad dream/Making the life that I had seem/Suddenly shiny and new.”

You can understand why Elton John and Bernie Taupin needed a break from each other. And you can equally understand why they’d want to reunite. Thanks to Gary Osborne’s contributions on songs like “Little Jeannie”, the non-Taupin Elton John years kept the ball rolling.

Photo by Rob Verhorst/Redferns