‘Jump Up!’: The Elton John album Bernie Taupin thought was “awful”
Elton John and Bernie Taupin are one of music’s most successful collaborative duos. Since fate brought them together when John was looking for lyrics and Taupin was looking for music, they’ve created countless timeless hits. But there was one album that Taupin struggled to get on board with, calling John’s work “awful”.
The meeting of John and Taupin truly was as if fate had stepped in. There was an advert placed in the New Musical Express in 1967 from Liberty Records. An A&R man from the label was looking for new talent, and both musicians applied totally separately. At the time, John was a pianist on the pub circuit trying to make something happen, but he always struggled to find the right words for the melodies he came up with. Neither musician even passed their audition at the label, but after John mentioned to the person behind the desk that he was looking for lyrics, the staff slipped him an envelope.
On the train home, he opened the note to find a poem by Taupin. He was so impressed that he reached out, and the rest was history. As John swiftly rose to the top in the 1970s, thanks to a seven-album streak at the number-one spot, all of his songs in those early years were co-written with Taupin.
But by 1977, ten years on from their meeting, they needed a break. Elton John biographer Tom Doyle said, “It was a very intensive working relationship that started in 1967 and by the time they got to 1976 these two guys are completely worn out.” So they took a few years off, but the records John released in those years were some of his most unsuccessful, making it clear that Taupin was an essential piece of the puzzle.
So, in the 1980s, they came back together, although not as intensely as they did before. Instead, Taupin contributed to the record occasionally when John came to ask for support with a song. In 1982, when John came to him for help with Jump Up!, the songwriter knew he needed to step in.
“It’s a terrible, awful, disposable album,” Taupin later said of the record. As John came to him with melodies needing some lyrics, he already knew that it would be a weak one. He said, “It’s a very messy album,” perhaps in part of their jumbled collaboration as several different songwriters worked on the release.
However, there is one saving grace on the album in Taupin’s mind. “It had ‘Empty Garden’ on it, so it’s worth it for that one song,” he said, picking out ‘Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)’ as its one good song. Written for John Lennon after his death and dedicated to his memory, the track is a beautiful ode to John’s old friend, who he would later perform with his son, Sean Ono Lennon, who is John’s godson.
So despite being deemed by Taupin as “one of our worst albums”, at least there is one special track on it to redeem its legacy somehow.
