Rocket Man
1972 · From Honky Chateau
Taupin borrowed the title from a Pearls Before Swine song, and Hentschel's ARP put the loneliness in orbit.
★ 7.9
The Songs canon
Sourced and sung.
Every song chosen by hand, with the recording to play it.
Browse all 2,393 songs or filter by genre, subject, artist, and year.
Browse all 2,393 songs or filter by genre, subject, artist, and year.
Your SongElton John
Your Song
1970 · From Elton John
Taupin scribbled the lyric over breakfast at a kitchen table, and Buckmaster's strings turned it into John's first Top 10.
★ 7.8
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
1973 · From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Sessions collapsed in Kingston, so the band regrouped at a French chateau and Taupin traded Oz for a Lincolnshire farm.
★ 7.7
Tiny Dancer
1971 · From Madman Across the Water
Taupin wrote it about Maxine Feibelman, the seamstress who toured with the band, and Almost Famous made it a singalong.
★ 7.3
Bennie and the Jets
1973 · From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Gus Dudgeon overdubbed crowd noise from old concerts, and the fake live track topped the Hot 100.
★ 7.1
Candle in the Wind
1973 · From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Taupin lifted the phrase from a Janis Joplin tribute and pointed it at Marilyn Monroe; the chorus does the mourning.
★ 6.8
Funeral For a Friend Love Lies Bleeding
1973 · From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
John wrote the instrumental half imagining music for his own funeral; Hentschel's ARP 2500 overdubs did the rest.
★ 6.3
Levon
1971 · From Madman Across the Water
Cut in February 1971 with Paul Buckmaster conducting, a character sketch about a balloon seller and the son who leaves.
★ 5.7
Candle in the Wind 1997Elton John
Candle in the Wind 1997
1997
Taupin rewrote his Marilyn Monroe lyric for Diana, George Martin added strings hours after the funeral, and 33 million sold.
★ 5.5
Can You Feel the Love Tonight
1994 · From The Lion King: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Written as a comedy number for a meerkat and a warthog until John objected, and it took the Oscar.
★ 5.4
Someone Saved My Life Tonight
1975 · From Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
Baldry talked Elton out of a wedding in 1968, and Taupin wrote him into the chorus as Sugar Bear.
★ 5.0
Madman Across the Water
1971 · From Madman Across the Water
Buckmaster spilled ink across his orchestral score and rewrote all of it in a day; Spedding's electric guitar prowls underneath.
★ 4.8
Don't Go Breaking My HeartElton John
Don't Go Breaking My Heart
Elton John and Kiki Dee
1976
Ann Orson and Carte Blanche on the credits, a Motown duet pastiche that held British number one for six weeks.
★ 4.7
I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues
1982 · From Too Low for Zero
Cut at AIR Montserrat with the classic band reunited, and Stevie Wonder's harmonica lifting it clean off the ground.
★ 4.5
Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me
1991
Elton John joined Michael onstage near Chicago in October 1991, and the live duet topped both charts.
★ 4.3
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
1972 · From Honky Chateau
Taupin's first New York, gunfire outside the hotel window, a rose borrowed from Spanish Harlem, all cut in France.
★ 4.3