ELTON JOHN AND KIKI DEE - “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”
The intro to this is a masterclass: the strings and piano curling around the bass and drums in what amounts to a trailer for the song, teasing its hooks for you. It’s a suitably flirty intro for a duet, so it’s a shame the performers don’t really catch fire. Or the performer - Kiki Dee doesn’t do much wrong (though it’s annoying how her lines sometimes just trail off), it’s just unfortunate that she’s partnered with the fearful pop heffalump that is Elton John.
When the Demis Roussos thread turned into a discussion of “whose voices don’t you like?” I had to bite my tongue, as Elton is close to the top of any list I’d make. It’s not that his badness is in-your-face, it’s more that his steady effortful hollering wears me down. I also blame him for popularising that huffing mid-Atlantic style British pop stars keep falling back on - if you want a moment in “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” which sums up my dislike it’s the way he sings “honey” as ”uh huh-neh”. He’s an ordinary singer who strains for power and connection but never quite makes it, at least on his famous stuff (though I’ve checked out a few recommended album cuts and still found the voice a problem).
As a writer, of course, he had plenty of moments, and disco seemed to particularly suit him, so musically “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” is dandy - all those feinting, jabbing string and guitar parts mirroring what ought to be a playful display of chemistry and affection. Enough of that gets through to make it a good Elton John single, and a record I want to like, but my problem with Elton is just too big a barrier. 5
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a logged out p^nk s lord sukråt wötsit on May 13th, 2008
marcello no! at least not the big illustrated edition i have — which also doesn’t say that john lennon said elton john was the future of rock! in fact it’s full to the gills of people not being declared the future of rock’n'roll!
lex on May 13th, 2008
I was going to chime in to say something about how I’ve always disliked Elton John, despite - especially - when he’s obviously crafted a fantastic pop song (eg ‘Your Song’ - I’ve never heard a bad cover of this but I can’t listen to Elton himself singing it); Billy puts it best though:
I really like Elton John’s voice precisely because of its Vic Reeves ‘club style’ affectation. There is a quality of silliness to everything that the man does that is rather fun and endearing. It’s as though one of the Muppets was making records, rather than a revered rock star. It also makes his attempts to do tortured seriousness, at the very least, tolerable.
Of course this is exactly the root of my dislike for him - I seriously don’t get how any of this is supposed to be good? I don’t want the bloody Muppets making records (I don’t want revered rock stars either, obv, but these are thankfully not the only options).
I think it’s a bit more than just silliness, though - Elton John always sounds as if he’s more in love with the idea of performing than what he’s actually singing, which makes the songs feel a bit hollow; his voice is constantly winking at the audience, but not because of the song’s wit, just cuz that’s what provincial camp British entertainers do. It’s all so…light-entertainment. Horrendous. Kat was otm with the smug comment too.
I don’t really remember this song apart from the offensively jaunty chorus.
FT's DJ Punctum on May 13th, 2008
Ah right - the one I have is the pocket-sized 1974 one with a greenish-reddish cover which hails Nick Drake as a name to watch on the scene…
FT's CarsmileSteve on May 13th, 2008
@38 witchita lineman
almost all macca songs are a bugger to sing, he has this really weird range and writes in odd keys which, as you say, you don’t notice until it gets to the high bits…
pink champale on May 13th, 2008
i really like this, i think mainly because - and this seems to be surprisingly rare in duets - elton and kiki actually sound like they are a) in the same room together; and b) like each other. they never really sound like a couple making heartfelt declarations to each other but the song and singing are so cheerful and good natured for that to be just part of the fun. though there is a fine line between cheery and intensely annoying and i can well see how this would fall the wrong side for lots of people.
i’ve never tested the karaoke potential of DGBMH but ‘nikita’ has more than once benefited from my, oh so hilarious, drunken interpretation.
Doctor Casino on May 13th, 2008
God yes. How many times have I let myself pick a Paul McCartney song at karaoke and discover once onstage that I’m completely out to sea? Deep on the back burner I have a homemade McCartney covers album in the works, and half the effort really is finding songs I can actually sing…
FT's Drucius on May 13th, 2008
DJ Punctum: “Ah right - the one I have is the pocket-sized 1974 one with a greenish-reddish cover which hails Nick Drake as a name to watch on the scene…”
The curse of the NME: he killed himself that November.
FT's Drucius on May 13th, 2008
Not a big Elton John fan, even now when I’m re-discovering a lot of great pop from my younger days. I can’t remember liking this at the time, and I still don’t. Too insubstantial, plus I was a huge Wings fan, so I was possibly a bit pissed off about it.
Kat but logged out innit on May 13th, 2008
Y’know, it was a long time before I saw a picture or a video of Elton taken pre-1990 (no Spoilerz!). I knew his old songs well enough, but I remember seeing a clip him doing Rocket Man in the early seventies, and being flabbergasted that this skinny young dude in wacky specs was the same guy as the toupee-tastic eighth dwarf (Grumpy, Sleepy, Doc and… ‘Diva’?) I knew as Elton. I really felt inadequate in my pop knowledge - how on earth was I meant to know about all this stuff that happened before I was even born? I still have trouble with this.
FT's rosie on May 13th, 2008
Will: I take it you mean Candle in the Wind and not Melanie’s excellent album alluded to a couple of threads ago, Candles in the Rain?
FT's and everybody elses Mark G on May 13th, 2008
Oh, and Elton John did a music publisher’s sampler consisting of a bunch of Nick Drake songs also.
Dan R on May 13th, 2008
Re: #52.
You don’t want the Muppets making records?? Goodness me, I had some of my most pleasurable listening in the 70s thanks to the Muppets. Indeed, I think I spent much of 1977/78 listening to the first two cast albums from the TV shows and also their rare and unusual EP of Music Hall songs. A splendid way to end my first decade on earth.
Agreed, that may have been unusually good preparation for listening to Elton John.
jeff w on May 13th, 2008
Further to my own #23, I just remembered I’ve wibbled at length about me and Elton already on my LJ, so I’ll just link the entry concerned rather than rehash it:
http://jeff-worrell.livejournal.com/57933.html
Waldo on May 13th, 2008
Marcello # 41 - A duel it will have to be. Roobarb (and particularly Custard - an incureable recidivist) were small screen gods, of course, but Hector was the first in the gang with a gun in his hand, the first to do time, the first in the gang to die. Oh, my! AND DON’T YOU FUCKING FORGET IT, KENNETH McKELLAR! COPY??!!
Basically, you’re a great big, silly old Marcello!
I had a thing for Zsa-Zsa, btw…
Dan M. on May 13th, 2008
A lot of great comments here as usual, so everything I have to say has been said. But anyways… the general Elton John critiques are on the mark; he was never to be taken seriously. Catchy, irritating, ubiquitous, “well-crafted” pop — the content and attitude too plainly ersatz to ever become dangerously pretentious. DGNMH was certainly ubiquitous — brings back non-specific memories of AM radio accompaniment to aimless summer looking-for-something-to-do driving. But that could be said of many many songs. Now, I find it completely fun, and probably the shallowest recording I’ve heard. It’s clever and energetic and nicely arranged, but lacks a single moment of individuality or feeling, other than the feeling of “it’s fun to be singing this song” (I know, I know, I’m just paraphrasing everyone else). Empty calories, but it goes down easy.
Brian on May 13th, 2008
I have always liked EJ. WIde ranging versatile catalogue. But one of the things I like best about EJ is his guitar player , Davey Johnstone. Probably the best accompanying guitar player in the world.
Brian on May 13th, 2008
Oh, and if you don’t remember hearing him on EJ’s records - then he has done his job.
FT's Lena on May 14th, 2008
I remember hearing this on a hot afternoon (it was in Ottawa, so it was hot and humid) in 1976. My father had gone to Ottawa for a world animation festival, my mom and I got the bus to Ottawa to meet up with him, and we were all on a sunny terrace when this came on. I loved it immediately, but my father grumbled about how repetitive it was (which now makes me wonder if The Fall’s “Repetition” is inspired by it)…
…This song is happy, but I think it’s an exaggeration to call it ‘jolly’ - the happiness jumps and bounds along as the music does, but it’s a nervous, even anxious happiness. One person’s heart clearly has been broken - that’s why he’s been ‘down’…broken so badly that he needs to be reassured (again and again) that no, she won’t break his heart. The joy of the song is tempered by that worry - and the music does its best to zigzag perpetually between him and her (it never rests or pauses)…because it’s in a major key and their singing is so clearly warm, that anxiousness is kind of masked…I don’t hear any smugness in the song because of that vulnerability, that worry…that this affair will be real, genuine and lasting…
Oh, and this was a transatlantic #1…the first one in some time…
Martin Skidmore on May 14th, 2008
Is it a myth that Elton, in the early ’70s, was also doing impersonations of top stars for either the Top Of The Pops or Hot Hits series of recent-hit-cover-copy albums?
FT's DJ Punctum on May 14th, 2008
No, it’s true, and an CD of his performances (or the “best” of them at any rate) was issued some years ago, though I’ve no idea whether it’s still available. Apparently the Top Of The Pops version of “Back Home” was performed by Elton, Rod Stewart and Dana Gillespie.
jeff w on May 14th, 2008
No, not a myth. You can even buy cheapo CD compilations of Elton’s contributions to the series now. I acquired one free with a Sunday newspaper a year or two back.
xpost obv
wwolfe on May 14th, 2008
Tom, I have a question, belatedly about one comment you made:
“I also blame him for popularising that huffing mid-Atlantic style British pop stars keep falling back on…”
I’ve seen the term “mid-Atlantic” now and then over the years, including here. I know what it means in American terms - roughly, the area on the Atlantic coast around Delaware and Rhode Island - but I don’t know what it means, either geographically or stylistically, in British terms.
I was interested to see what you had to say about the annoying aspects of his singing. For me, I think he has a pleasant vocal timbre - or he did, before drugs, age, and over-use hardened the tone - but the way he enunciates the syllables has always bothered me. Reading your post, a possible reason finally occurred to me. Elton is a (sincere, I think) fan of American rhythm and blues - he, for example, has spoken ardently about the superiority of Erma Franklin’s original version of “Piece of My Heart.” In his early, scuffling days, he recorded demo versions of American hits, for consideration by British acts. One of these was in fact “Piece of My Heart.” I was thinking of this after reading your comments, and it suddenly occurred to me that if I pictured the young, very English Reg Dwight doing his fervent best to replicate Erma Franklin’s pronunciation of the lyrics on “Piece of My Heart,” it would sound almost exactly like Elton John’s pronunciation of lyrics on just about everything he’s ever recorded. Mick Jagger wound up creating his style in a similar way, with the huge difference being that he made it his own, while Reg-into-Elton-via-Erma never quite made that leap. Jagger’s affectation became a means of personal expression, while Elton’s remained mere affection.
That’s my theory, anyway.
wwolfe on May 14th, 2008
“…while Elton’s remained mere affectATion.”
Sheesh.
FT's Tom on May 14th, 2008
“mid-Atlantic” I had no idea was a US region! It’s a slightly cliched way British pop critics describe a Brit singer affecting or imitating an American way of phrasing and singing but not quite getting there. In a sense, someone like the Killers might be mid-Atlantic in the other direction.
wwolfe on May 15th, 2008
Thank you! This makes sense now.
intothefireuk on May 17th, 2008
I found most of Elton’s output up until this time fairly pallatable with Your Song, Rocket Man, Goodbye Yellow, Saturday Nights Alright (replete with killer riff), Funeral & grey seal being particular highlights. However, DGBMH was very disappointing and seemed to lack any real substance. A knock-a-bout tune which made a direct grab at a mainstream audience I can’t imagine, if he was enitrely honest with himself, that he was pleased that it outsold any of his former glories. Kiki too, had much better singles previous to this, but not being a huge selling artist I can excuse her more than I can Elton. It may, of course, have just been Elton being incredibly generous giving his (then) protege a helping hand (much like Bowie had with Iggy) and accidently falling on a huge hit.
Although I am not a fan of Mid-Atlantic accents (as epitomised by Radio 1 & especially Radio Luxembourg DJ’s) I didn’t actually mind Elton’s. His sounds less forced and (almost) natural whereas the hideous monster that is R Williams has the most unnatural, forced & fake singing accent I think I have ever heard & deserves thoroughly to be blasted into space (with his alien buddies).
FT's Alan on May 17th, 2008
elton john and the muppets (Sam the Eagle and Kermit):
Sam: Kermit,about this Elton John. I have seen some weird guests on this show but this Elton John is beyond the revolutionary.
Kermit: Sam, Elton John is one of the greatest entertainers of all time.
Sam: Then why does he dress up like a stolen car?
Caledonianne on May 18th, 2008
Misanthropes! Misanthropes! This is fabulous. In July 1976 I spent the summer holidays being an £18 a week filing clerk in the law firm where I later (if briefly) became a partner.
When I was locked in the wills vault or - worse - retrieving dispositions and retrocessions from the dusty graveyard that was the title deeds safe this seemed always to be on the radio and immensely cheering it was too, as I thought about great matters like whether to have a cheese and tomato or a ham roll for elevenses,and whether lunch was to be a sausage roll or a bridie from the next door Greggs.
There’s a sort of angularity - a jabbing quality to the strings in this - that just wakes me up. It’s like an aural spongebath with Original Source Tea Tree and Mint shower gel, Makes me sort of shudder, but in a good way.
I was clearly on another planet, and oblivious to all this ‘why punk had to happen’ angst. Apart from the countrified parodies I think this has been a sound year. In fact, I wonder if I will ever enjoy (chart) music so much again (though if I remember aright the impact of punk on the Popular concept is less than its cheerleaders would have us believe)?
Caledonianne on May 18th, 2008
Forgot to say - would be intrigued to hear more about Marcello’s assertion that the two Macca songs owe more to GO’S than they’re letting on.
I was Gilbert’s girl in my early teens, and bought Wings at the Speed of Sound on release, so would love to hear the thinking.