Elton John’s Co-Writer ‘Hated’ 1 of His Biggest Hits
Elton John and Bernie Taupin are one of the great songwriting duos — but Taupin doesn’t like all of their hits. In an interview, he explained why John ignored him when he expressed his dislike for the track. In addition, here’s a look at the way the public reacted to this song.
A song Elton John wrote in an unusual way
In addition to being many other things, John is a duet machine. He’s released an album called Duets and he’s performed with a diverse range of artists, including Lady Gaga, Leonard Cohen, George Michael, and Stevie Wonder. One of his most notable duets was a love song he released early in his career which he wrote in an atypical manner.
Ultimate Classic Rock reports when John and Taupin worked together, Taupin would write lyrics and John would set them to music. However, John wrote the music for at least one of his 1970s hits before Taupin composed its lyrics. Although John is more of a pianist than a lyricist, producer says John came up with some of the lyrics for this song before Taupin worked on it.
“Elton didn’t have a lyric for it,” Dudgeon recalled. “It was so weird to see him writing a song in the studio with no lyric. I’d never seen him do it before. And all he was singing was ‘Don’t go breaking my heart.'” Dudgeon remembered John singing that lyric over and over again. He’d retain that line in the final song — a duet with Kiki Dee called “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” Taupin wasn’t impressed with the track.
Why Elton John released ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ when Bernie Taupin didn’t like it
In an interview with PageSix, Taupin discussed his feelings about ‘Don’t Go Breaking my Heart.” “I hated it, and it was the biggest single we had in Europe.” So why did “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” get released if Taupin objected to it so much? “I just did not like it … But Elton [above] always ignores me when I say I don’t like a song. He always knows better than me.” So Europeans embraced the song — but did Americans?
How the American public reacted to ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’
“Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” reached the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. Of course, many hit singles from the 1970s are forgotten today. Did “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” become forgotten in America or did it leave a lasting impact on American pop culture? Well, it’s shown up in a pair of American animated films: Gnomeo & Juliet and Walt Disney Picture’s Chicken Little. In addition, John got to perform it with a pair of American icons: Miss Piggy and RuPaul. Taupin might not be a fan of the track, but the people of the United States seem to like it.
