Favorite Elton John Song & (maybe) why?

[BrendaBrick]

For me, hands down: Philadelphia Freedom.

It was in a counter-clockwise roller skating rink where I *skated* favoring only my left foot and had massive blisters the next day to prove it. (More to the story...but I'll spare you the details.)

(I seem to also recall songs by Neil Sedaka and Barry Manilow at the same time - yet somehow - nah - not the same vibe.)

How about you?

[pipi_k]

1. As usual...

I can't have just ONE favorite...

I like Philadelphia Freedom. Don't know why.

I also like:

The One...

and:

The Last Song...

[BrendaBrick]

5. Dang.

Wow. I have (evidently) been way out of the loop regarding his most recent talent. He just gets better, doesn't he? Ummph.

Ummph, ummph, ummph.

damn. really good stuff that cuts right to the chase in the most extraordinary, gentle and sophisticated manner imaginable.

He's surely in a league of his own ~

Thanks for bringing me up to speed pipa_k!

[pipi_k]

15. No problem...

Although those two are at least 20 years old...from the early 90s, but yes, they are more recent than his 70s songs.

I don't know if he's got anything more recent than "Candle in the Wind" or the "Lion King" stuff...

[Archae]

2. I love this one...

[BrendaBrick]

8. Lawd have mercy!

It's been AGES since I heard that song!!! I mean - who CAN'T FELL HAPPY after listening to that???

Right on!

Sir Elton (aka - Reginald Kenneth Dwight) has a real soulful side to him, to be sure!

Along these lines reminds me of this little jewel:

Part one: "Take Me To The Pilot" in the most simplistic and no-holds-barred honest of musical terms ~ yet equally disciplined rendition you could possibly ever imagine here:

&feature=related

Part Two: Same song. Same discipline (plus a bit of sassy right out of the gate), veers into another direction and finally just...lets 'er rip...full orchestra and all!!! (...turn it up.)

&feature=related

[begin_within]

40. Wow, I loved the second one.

The first one was interesting, and I'm glad I listened to it, but I can't see myself sitting through it over and over. The second was a very nice use of the orchestra! I would have loved to hear that live with the full impact of hearing it in person. Thanks

[Duer 157099]

3. Funeral for a Friend n/t

[pipi_k]

16. Second part

"Love Lies Bleeding"....that's the one I like

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. Way too many to pick just one

I love the entire "The One" album but if I had to list a single song of his that makes me feel good, it's "Tiny Dancer". I've always thought it to be a cute, pleasant little song. "I'm Still Standing" is a great pick-me-up song whenever I'm down in the dumps.

[BrendaBrick]

9. You know...

sometimes I wonder if it isn't so much the actual lyrics which shine through...but rather his authenticity about it all that really makes it special...no matter what he's singing about. I think he is kind of unique and special in that way...

[Proud Liberal Dem]

31. It feels more organic

instead of the slick and polished way most music is produced nowadays. I've found that the music artists I like the most are the ones whom craft and perform their own songs.

[Iggo]

6. A couple of them.

Funeral For A Friend, for sonic value.

Harmony, for sentimental value. (There was this girl. I miss her sometimes.)

[BrendaBrick]

10. Funeral For A Friend

Hard song to revisit...

[mrmpa]

7. My first favorite, I could have listened to this album 24/7. First episode at Hienton

[BrendaBrick]

11. wow.

must be some of his really early work...but still - really good stuff!

[mrmpa]

14. yep.......

that's the cover of the album on the youtube video

[chknltl]

12. Joining the choir in that it is all but impossible to love just one best.

Crocodile Rock, Rockrtman, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road....bring back fond memories of an earlier time.

[BrendaBrick]

13. yep. n/t

[bluedave]

17. and

&list=FLY_w71NrWZ-dQQwIV8LcC4Q&index=6&feature=plpp_video

[Iggo]

18. Oh jeez! How could I forget!!!

[ehrnst]

19. Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word

From the Blue Moves albumn.

[NightWatcher]

20. Tony Danza

Hold me closer Tony Danza
Count the headlights on the highway...







But seriously, Tiny Dancer and the newer I Want Love. It's got a good video with Robert Downey Jr

[KamaAina]

24. In a similar vein, the Central Park Guitar Man's cover of Rocket Man

his name is David Ippolito, and he used to post here occasionally!

Instead of "I'm a rocket man, burnin' out my fuse up here alone..." he had....

......

.......

"I'm a rocket man, Bernie Taupin sleeps with everyone"!

[hifiguy]

21. So much of the early stuff:

Your Song, Ballad of a Well-Known Gun, My Father's Gun, Where To Now, St. Peter?, Tiny Dancer, Madman Across the Water. And those are only the first ones that come to mind.

His first few albums were classics from beginning to end.

[Wounded Bear]

22. First one to come to my mind....

haunting......Candle in the Wind......

[kurtzapril4]

23. Madman Across the Water.

This is the version on the master, Mick Ronson on guitar.

[RebelOne]

25. Philadelphia Freedom because I was born there. n/t

[hlthe2b]

26. Daniel.. I just heard an interview on NPR with him that tells the line left out...

that explained the whole song. (about a brother blinded from service in Vietnam, moving to Spain)

[begin_within]

36. ...and all this time we thought it was a gay love story...

[beac]

39. I heard that interview too!

Were you as amazed as I was to learn that Bernie Taupin (his lyricist) sends him the words written out as if they were a poem and Elton John then breaks it into verse/bridge/chorus/etc. and composes the music without ever being in the same room with Taupin?

[hlthe2b]

41. Yes... I found that fascinating... Even more that they've never really had a disagreement on work

[Arugula Latte]

27. Benny & the Jets and Yellowbrick Rd.

Benny ... 'Cuz it's fun and different. I like how he addresses the audience: "Hey, kids..." I like the halting piano.

Yellowbrick -- pretty song, with a few lyrics that were mysterious to me before the Internet cleared 'em up... Fatted calf? Really?

[Bertha Venation]

28. A tie: Levon and Madman Across the Water

Don't know why. I just love them. Maybe because they're among my favorite songs to sing along with.

[kurtzapril4]

29. Elton fun fact:

The "someone" in Someone Changed My Life Tonight was Long John Baldry. Elton was engaged to be married, and he had a talk to Baldry, and Baldry(who had a crush on Elton)told him he should back out.

[LWolf]

30. Your Song.

The song I heard first.

[Denninmi]

32. Here you go:

[TuxedoKat]

38. I was going to say this one too!

And Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding is my other favorite of his.

[Inspired]

33. Levon, Tiny Dancer, In Neon, Sacrifice and

every song on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

[Generic Brad]

34. I Want to Kiss the Bride and Funeral For a Friend

The first is upbeat, the other is pensive. Both have undeniable power.

[OmahaBlueDog]

35. "Amoreena" and "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters"

(you may also remember "Amoreena" from the movie "Dog Day Afternoon&quot

I also very fond of "Grey Seal" and "Recover Your Soul"

[begin_within]

37. The Cage

Crank it up...

In fact, basically everything on the "Elton John," "Tumbleweed Connection" and "Madman Across the Water" is outstanding. And many great songs scattered over the later albums. But the "Elton John" album is probably his defining work, roughly the equivalent of David Bowie's "Hunky Dory" to him.

[AsahinaKimi]

42. This

There was an old Juke box at this funky little restaurant on the Huntington Beach Pier. I used to sit in there and have Hot Cocoa and some one would play this song all the time. I remember watching the Sunset from there.