Is this Elton’s best single? It’s certainly one of them, a sepia-tinted elegy for the lost innocence of childhood.

There’s a wistful end-of-an-era nostalgia to the mood of music and lyrics. Elton is at his most melodic after the hammering aggression of Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting.

Taupin, meanwhile, cleverly channels the Wizard Of Oz as a central metaphor in a song that is, uncharacteristically for him, filled with deeply personal reminiscences.

It shouldn’t work: I normally cannot stand celebs whingeing about their good fortune (who can?!), in particular the terrible isolation of living in an ivory tower with limitless resources of cocaine, pornography, ice cream and flowers, but somehow, thanks to Bernie’s light touch, Elton makes it work.

The song contrasts life in a lonely penthouse with an idyllic country childhood playing in the woods. Or, as Taupin so memorably puts it: “Back to the howlin’ old owl int he woods / Hunting the horny-backed toad.”

Not that there were many of those in Pinner when young Reg was a boy – unlike Taupin, who grew up on a Lincolnshire farm. Hence the line: “You can’t plant me in your penthouse / I’m going back to my plough.”

The lyric has other strange but memorable lines relating to the pressures of fame, and the perils of the music biz, dealing with “Mongrels who ain’t got a penny / Sniffin’ for titbits like you.”

Above all it’s just a great tune, and Elton’s in great voice, putting it up there with the best of his singles, alongside Rocket Man, Tiny Dancer and Your Song.