Watch Elton John cover Leon Russell’s ‘A Song for You’: “The most beautiful song ever written”
It’s a personal favourite of Alex Turner, Jools Holland and Rita Coolidge called it “the most beautiful song ever written” – granted, she did think it was written about her, which Leon Russell refutes – but all the same, ‘A Song for You’ has attracted high praise from plenty of stars. Elton John is another musical great who ranks it among the finest ballads of all time.
The Rocketman might have sold over 300 million records worldwide, but ‘A Song for You’ is still the one he wishes he had written. The tearjerking love song is taken from Russell’s 1970 debut album, after years of writing for others and playing as a session musician. The waltzing melody makes his vocals feel all the more heartfelt, cheapening more seamless arrangements by virtue of the fact that their neatness must surely mean they’re culling some rugged sentiment.
Russell isn’t prepared to do that, and he explains as much with the sublime lyric: “Listen to the melody, because my loves in there, honey”. The sparseness of the composition allows Russell, and indeed anyone who covers it, to howl that point home, adding a bellowed sincerity to a song that was never lacking in it in the first place.
It’s a beauty that Elton has always cherished, and eventually, he got to collaborate with his mate. He explained: “I wanted to make an album with him because he’d been forgotten, and I wanted to put his name back in the spotlight; I wanted him to be a member of the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame and Songwriters Hall Of Fame. I wanted him to get his recognition back, and he did. There is plenty of songs that I wish have written, but this song is up there.”
The track itself was borne from Russell’s desire to break free from the blues stylings that he had become shackled with as a session star and add a bit of swing to the genre. At the time, he’d been writing for Gary Lewis and the Playboys and recording with the likes of The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton, but this time, he had Frank Sinatra in mind.
“It’s easy to write a blues song but I wanted to write one Sinatra might sing, which takes a little doing,” he told Mojo. This placed the track more in Elton’s wheelhouse, so when he toured in 1986, sporting the finest aesthetic look of his career – perhaps any career, period – he decided to cover his old friend’s song.
You can check out the belting results below.
