“So beautiful”: The one song Elton John would listen to for the rest of his life
When anyone has the number of hits that Elton John has, it’s hard to keep track of everything. As much as people might like to single out the moments from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Caribou that they grew up listening to, there’s a good chance that some generations only know him from making some of the greatest songs Disney has ever released in The Lion King. But outside of his own music, John was always one to return to the classics whenever he stepped away from his piano.
For all of the outrageous behaviour that he may have seen in the 1970s, John was always a connoisseur of the classical world as well. He may have been rock and roll to his core whenever he played, but listening back to his work on his self-titled record, what he was playing underneath Bernie Taupin’s words could very well have been classical compositions had he decided to go into that practice instead.
That’s not to say that John is exactly a snob regarding his favourite music, either. He has always loved all stripes of music, and it’s not every day that there is a titan of rock still around that’s able to see the beauty in a Johnny Cash song and a Chappell Roan tune whenever he’s listening to the charts. If there’s one musical feeling that hits John harder than anything, though, it’s nostalgia.
From day one, John always kept songs like ‘Roy Rogers’ close to his heart because of how much it reminded him of his childhood watching westerns. He may have had the fantasy of being a cowboy back in the days before the giant sunglasses and sequinned suits came out, but whenever he got home, he also fell in love with the standards singers like Nat King Cole from the pre-rock and roll days.
Elvis Presley and Little Richard may have helped him find his calling, but there is a raw beauty that comes with listening to Cole’s take on standards. Bing Crosby certainly could carry a tune well enough, but Cole’s take on ‘L-O-V-E’ is still one of the purest vocal performances in history, to the point where it seems like he is floating on air as he’s singing it half the time.
“One of my favourite songs is ‘Smile’ by Charlie Chaplin because it’s such an uplifting song and the lyrics are so beautiful.”
Elton John
Outside of other classics like ‘Unforgettable’, though, John said that he would gladly listen to the song ‘Smile’ for the rest of his life if he could, saying, “One of my favourite songs is ‘Smile’ by Charlie Chaplin because it’s such an uplifting song and the lyrics are so beautiful and, of course, it was sung by Nat King Cole, so I would choose that one.” While the melody itself is firmly stamped in the days before rock and roll existed, it does fit surprisingly well with the kind of music that John built his legacy on.
The melody is far from the most complicated thing in the world, but the way it moves is almost indebted to the Broadway show tunes of days gone by, which made it all the more strange when Michael Jackson decided to take a swing at it later in his career on HIStory. And from how the chords move underneath, it’s easy to hear the beginning of John’s fascination with melodic structure, almost like he was making the template for which to write ‘Rocket Man’ years after the fact.
But of all the covers that John has done over the years, it’s very telling that he hasn’t attempted to do his own version of this tune on any of his records. He is more than happy to give a tip of the hat to anyone that inspires him, but sometimes some tracks are simply too special to put one’s own spin to.
