The Grammy Awards are scheduled for the first of February, with Elton and Brandi Carlile amongst the contenders. Never Too Late, recorded for Elton’s documentary of the same name, is up for Best Song Written For Visual Media. And their album, Who Believes in Angels?, has been nominated in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category.
With that in mind, the Elton Blog has decided to look at other duets, and one of the earliest was . . .
• Lesley Duncan. She wrote the simple yet effective Love Song, which was included on two of Elton’s releases, Tumbleweed Connection and Here And There. ”Here” was recorded at London’s Royal Festival Hall, during an Invalid Children’s Aid Society Benefit.
• France Gall. She was a 1965 Eurovision winner, but sounded shrill on Donner Pour Donner. Les Aveux was a much better song . . . for listeners and for both of the stars.
• Lady Gaga. Elton and Gaga made their first joint appearance during the 2010 Grammy Awards. While their Speechless/Your Song medley received a warm reception, it was their sparkly ensembles–particularly Elton’s huge earring and glasses–which really stood out. According to 20/20 magazine, both had on Swarovski-encrusted sunglasses custom-made by Giorgio Armani.
The following year, the entertainers teamed up for Gnomeo & Juliet‘s Hello Hello. One can’t help but think of the Beatles‘ Hello, Goodbye, and Bernie wasn’t at his best with all too familiar lines like ”Ain’t life a many splendoured thing” and ”puppets on a string.”
A refreshing change of pace was Sine From Above, on Gaga’s Chromatica album. Rolling Stone considered it ”electro-pop heaven,” thanks in part to Elton’s smooth, deep voice which ”sounded like he’s been gunning to become a disco vocalist for the entirety of his career.”
• Rina Sawayama. Elton was Rina’s singing partner on Chosen Family, which had a good melody and message: that you don’t need to share genes or a surname – or even look the same – to be considered family. They also were together at the 2023 Glastonbury Festival, for an aimless version of Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.
Now for a few fellows. . .
• Sam Fender. Elton’s piano is the best part of the rockabilly-tinged Talk To You, which was released in October. Incidentally, they performed another song, Sam’s Will We Talk? at the 2020 Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party.
• Engelbert Humperdinck. In 2014, a collection of duets, Engelbert Calling, was released. It started off with Elton’s Something About the Way You Look Tonight.
Engelbert told the Calgary Herald that after Elton got on board, it was easy to attract other names to the project, such as Gene Simmons and Dionne Warwick. He compared Elton to a honeycomb, but their duet wasn’t nearly as sweet as The Big Picture original.
• Leon Russell. Elton and Leon’s The Union was one of Rolling Stone‘s favourite 2010 recordings (ours as well). It reminded some reviewers of the seventies, especially–to quote Uncut–the ”rustic terrain of Tumbleweed Connection.” That is certainly true of Gone To Shiloh and Jimmie Rodgers’ Dream.
And quite a few cuts have a gospel flavour–even the beginning of
If It Wasn’t For Bad, nominated for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals at the Grammy Awards.
• Gary Barlow. In 2013, Elton joined the Take That star for an upbeat song called Face to Face (no connection to Elton and Billy Joel‘s concerts!)
Gary and Elton went on to perform Your Song on the Crooner Sessions. Gary’s series of duets began as a way to cheer people up during the pandemic. So in keeping with lockdown protocols, Elton and Gary appeared via video stream from their respective homes.
• Ozzy Osbourne. When the Black Sabbath singer was working on the title track for Ordinary Man, he thought of the Rocket Man’s early music. So he was delighted when Elton agreed to take part.
Ozzy wrote in his autobiography, Last Rites, that he played the track for some people before it was released. Each of them cried, leading Ozzy to quip, ”It wasn’t that bad!”
They were obviously touched by lyrics expressing regret for losing control and hurting ”momma” (a reference to his wife, Sharon).
Ozzy thought it could be about his life or Elton’s, though. He wrote that they came from humble backgrounds, and wound up with almost everything they could want.
