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
Not the most convincing single Elton ever recorded – I love his voice, but I’ll agree that he sounds a little bit thin here somehow. I’d take “Philadelphia Freedom” for his work in this vein, although it’s a little bloated and certainly not as accessible in terms of punchy hooky pop etc.
But this is pretty good! There’s more going on in it than I remember… like, the band/orchestra weave in a fair number of little changes and licks that keeps it from just being disco-on-autopilot behind the star singers. Kiki Dee is the kind of funny thing here to me – what’s her deal? Was this intended as a career booster for her, or was she already famous? As all-star collabos go, it just seems a little bit one-sided….
What are other examples of this “huffing Mid-Atlantic style British pop stars keep falling back on”? I think I know what you mean but I can’t seem to put my finger on anybody else who does this.
The main one I almost always have in mind making this criticism is Robbie Williams.
Strange that it’s taken so long for Elton to make an appearance on here after four UK number one albums and five number one singles in America (seven if you count his contributions to “Whatever Gets You Thru’ The Night” and “Bad Blood”) but such are the semi-random ways of the charts and thus he finally gets to the top just as the first phase of his fame was coming to an end (his previous UK best was “Rocket Man” which reached #2 behind “Metal Guru” in June 1972).
Great to see Kiki at number one in any context, though, after a decade of being tossed from label to label like a pop pancake, nobody (including Motown) really knowing what to do with her; Elton came to the rescue, signed her to Rocket and thus “Amoureuse,” “I’ve Got The Music In Me” and many other similar delights.
“DBGMH” is a cheerily courtly duet, the Philly influence very much apparent (although the sonic aura of the record could only be British), both singers interacting naturally if not spectacularly, and unafraid to come on TOTP for six straight weeks (either on the show itself or via the mock-recording studio larking about video) in a village-sized check jacket and Watch With Mother dungarees respectively.
For five of those weeks Dr Hook sat patiently at number two with the insufferable “A Little Bit More” and in week six Wings tried it again with “Let ‘Em In” – and they would have proceeded to number one the following week had not they been overtaken by the beginning of time.
“Let ‘Em In” is very enjoyable but somehow seems to deserve #2 status. Anything that breezily unnecessary, no matter how catchy, would seem unable to bear the weight of the number one crown. (This is not a dig against Wings, for the record – I am a huge fan, and rather aghast at how minimally they will impact our journey here – but it wasn’t their best single…)
One of the best number ones of the year. An intriguing partnership of Elton, by now an international superstar and not gay at all, and Kiki, the token white bird from Motown. Berry Gordy signed two solo white acts to his legendary stable. The other was the wonderful R Dean Taylor. Neither he nor Kiki were from the United States. DGBMY was in the first place such a fine song and perfect for a duet. Everything came together and the disc rocketed to the top (geddit?). I’ll have to admit to a bit of a Clodagh thing for Kiki Dee, a smiley, healthy girl with nut brown hair but this was probably tempered by the fact that the only other “Kiki” I ever knew was the frog from “Hector’s House”. Blinding show that. I could write a thesis about it as I did once on “The Tragedy Which Is Captain Black”.
How can I not love this? It’s summery, it’s cheerful. And most of all, it was number one when I got married for the first time! And in the end, it was still number one to see the rains that broke that spectacular summer. And the Hull prison riots, because we’d moved to Hull, which was a new and therefore exciting place to me, all ready to live independently and start work in the Real World.
Of course, it’s entirely affective. When I hear it I feel the heat of the summer, and I see the dried and yellow grass, and I sense the liminality of it all, but I don’t find myself thrilling to the music which is – dare I say it, technically accomplished, neatly packaged, but really not very exciting or innovative.
I got married on 14 August in St Michael’s church in the centre of Macclesfield. Hey, do you think Ian Curtis was within spitting distance, getting wellied in one of the pubs on Waters Green? ;)
Predictable stock question I always ask people who’ve had something to do with Hull: did you ever cross paths with Pop Larkin up at the library?
As is often the way, later history changes the meaning of a couple of the lines, my favourite being
E: Don’t go breaking my heart
K: I couldn’t if I tried
E: Ah, Honey, if I get restless
K: Baby, you’re not that kind
The version with RuPaul is better.
Pete I think you missed out the last half of that last sentence – “…than ‘Can’t Be With You Tonight’ by Judy Boucher.”
I think the answer is, not knowingly. I didn’t have much to do with the University, except when I was learning Italian there in the evenings and then the libray was closed. I dare say I may have glimpsed him around the Pearson Park area (where he lived) but I don’t recall and he was famously reclusive. Knowing what we know now I imagine him patronising the second-hand furniture shop in Beverley Road that was known to be a front for pornography smuggled in on ships from Scandinavia and the Netherlands.
Now Alan Plater, that was a different matter. Alan was often to be seen at the checkout in Jacksons and answering questions about his latest Play For Today…
To me Elton John’s voice always sounded as though it wasn’t his real voice. That’s certainly quite common, especially around this time, and it doesn’t seem (to me) to be such a problem with a lot of singers (Bowie, Bolan Ferry etc.), but for some reason I couldn’t quite identify with Elton. I’m not sure, but did he always sound as if he was pitching to an American audience – I mean the tone of his voice, not the content of his lyrics.
I did enjoy some of his more instrumental pieces (esp. “Funeral For A Friend”), and it can’t really be denied that by now, he deserved a number one, so it might as well be this one.
Kiki Dee had been around for some time, as previously noted, but never really looked like cracking it. Even now (2008) as then, despite semi-classics like “(I Got The) Music In Me” and the gorgeous “Amoureuse” she is probably still best known for her association with Elton John.
Five is probably around the mark I would give for this – it’s childishly charming and unsubstantial, a pleasant enough summer tune, and, thank you Marcello, it kept Dr Hook’s dreadful dirge off the number one spot, although I would have been quite happy for Wings to have taken the sixth week from them!
I like the way Elton seems to have a different chord on every beat – no-one else does that quite so consistently and for me it’s his best trademark. I really don’t like this song though – on Hits!TV’s top 20 duets (presented by Jordan & Peter Andre) I happily sat through Vandross and Peabo and even J&PA themselves, but I had to turn it off when Elton and Kiki came on. I’m not sure why yet, but perhaps I’ll have an idea by the time I get to the end of this comment. The ‘WOOOOO-HOOOO, nobody knows it’ bits are great. The disco pew-pew-pew noises are great. As mentioned above, the flip-flop chords are great. Hmmm. There must be something wrong with it? Arrrrgh!
Their smug faces, perhaps?
And speaking of Hull, I can remember Hull appearing on “Uni Challenge” at about this time. Their #4 was a rather bewitching girl called Jennifer Downing, who as well as being a bit of a brahmer was also the star turn for the side. Years later (and now looking rather prim and mumsie – there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that), she won “Mastermind” with ease under her married name of Keaveney.
Waldo – don’t forget Bruce Willis! (Er, did he join Motown before Gordy left? Where’s my wikipedia….)
Later in this year I saw Wings at Wembley. I was not a big fan but was amazed at how well Mac’s songs translated to the live performance. ” Let ‘em In ” being one, when a full troop of fife & drum players appeared in the middle section of the song.
” Silly Love Songs ” also set up to be a great 2 part round & sing-along……
Vinylscot #11: Perhaps the borrowed voice thing is why this is such a regularly terrific karaoke song? I’m always far happier to see it come up on the karaoke screen than I am to hear it on the radio! Or maybe it’s just that karaoke duets are always awesome.
(Also, unfortunately Dr Hook were to take fearful revenge.)
Don’t talk to me about karaoke duets. Let’s just say Julio and Willie have nothing to fear from me!
What riled me at the time was that every time Radio 1 played this, no matter who the dj, they said ‘that’s a guaranteed number one’ in a smarmy way that sounded very much like advertising: Kat’s right about the air of smugness. And even age 11 that made me want it to fail. So I smelt a conspiracy when it rocketed to the top, a position that Elton had never remotely threatened with the Middlesex Americana that made his name (even Rocket Man was never likely to dislodge Metal Guru, which kept it off no.1).
Of course six weeks at number one renders the conspiracy theory a little threadbare.
I always put his vocal stylings down to the fact that he was an insecure man who desperately wanted to be someone, anyone, as far removed from Pinner Reg as possible. Hence, a weird ‘American’ accent that sounds as contorted as Bob Hoskins’ effort in Mermaids… followed in due course by shades, hair pieces, feather boas, monumental florist’s bills…
His voice never bothered me when it could soar a little (I’m thinking of Daniel, Rocket Man, and especially the wordless banshee hook on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road), but the affectedness has grown worse as he’s gotten older.
Good to see Kiki earn a few quid, either way. Her run of 60s flops includes plenty that Dusty would be proud of, let alone Sandie. And almost none of them are on cd, bah.
Yes, the sad but inevitable legacy of sundry different record companies not agreeing to work together and put out a definitive Rhino-style Kiki retrospective.
Pinner’s not that bad. Mum went there to do xmas food shopping at the big Marks & Sparks.
I think it’s all an unfortunate misunderstanding. There was a rumour Kiki never wanted the stuff re-issued. Then (in a drunken state so I can’t remember who), someone told me they’d met her and she’d love to see it out again. It’s hard to see what she’d be ashamed of. Patterns is dark and magnificent enough for Scott 1 or 2, the sunshine/northern Tizer-fizzy On A Magic Carpet Ride goes for hundreds on ebay, et cet. Universal own the lot so no probs there, if they wanted to ok it…
I’m sure it would sell pretty healthily too, if that’s what they’re worried about.
(slight detour: for years I’ve wondered why Billy Fury’s EMI period work has never made it onto CD and apparently it’s all down to a somewhat tawdry long-running legal dispute between family and ex-wife as to who owns the rights)
For some it’s “No Charge”, for others it was Roussos. Well, this is my “why punk had to happen” record. I even argued as much 22 years ago at the start of my Uni final year dissertation (subject: indie!).
But that’s not because I particularly disliked the song or the performance. Far from it. Elton is a key figure in the development of my pop love. (When time allows, I’ll wibble on a bit more as to the how and why of that. I guess it’ll have to be on this thread as it’s many years before Elton troubles Popular again.) But the premier league status of at least one half of the duo performing this single, its extended run at the top of the charts and IIRC its omnipresence on TV variety shows – not just TOTP – meant it epitomises for me the UK pop establishment as it existed in the summer of ’76. So to the extent that punk was signifying a Year Zero approach, it seemed to me this had to be part of what it was reacting to.
I was reacquainted with the record when acquiring EJ’s Greatest Hits Vol.2 in 1979. In that context, it comes across as very ‘safe’, musically and lyrically*. To put that more positively, it’s the sound of artists working outside their comfort zone (Elton and Bernie Taupin wrote it, but both used pseudonyms – Ann Orson and Carte Blanche – and that feels very appropriate, like they were aiming to pastiche someone else’s style, call and response duets not featuring heavily, or indeed at all, in their back catalogue).
What saves the record for me is the jolly, one might almost say gung ho, vocal performances, the way Elton and Kiki sing the (rather bland) lines rather than what they’re singing. And unlike Tom, I love those mid-Atlantic affectations. The very line he cringes over I recall with a smile.
(*yes, I would argue that this certainly wasn’t the case as regards most of EJ’s 70s output)
There’s a big advert for all sorts of “Collector Sessions” CD sets of Billy Fury, on the back of Shindig or Record Collector mag.
I’ve seen those in the shops too and they’re purely drawn from the Decca years – outtakes, alternate takes and so forth – alas.