Funny to think Elton John could have been forgotten as a one-hit wonder after Your Song. Rocket Man came out 15 months later and he had released two entire albums – Tumbleweed Connection and Madman Across The Water – without adding to that solitary hit. Not even the now revered Tiny Dancer had troubled the Top 40.

 

Until that recent biopic (which I haven’t seen, and which condenses the song title into one word, like Batman or Superman or Spiderman) Rocket Man, and the album from whence it came, Honky Chateau, seemed to lurk unremembered in the ante-room of Elton’s stellar career.

 

But it’s always been one of my favourites, most of which come from the first phase of his career before the comedy specs and fancy dress turned him into a Glam caricature and rocketed him (groan!) to superstardom.

 

It’s an obvious (and successful) attempt to recapture the vibe of David Bowie’s hit Space Oddity – both songs even share the same producer in Gus Dudgeon.

The melancholy of the music, enhanced by Elton’s uncharacteristically light touch on the keys, and Taupin’s poignant lyrics, capture the melancholia and loneliness of the long-distance astronaut.

 

I love the simplicity with which it begins, with Elton alone at the piano… and then the heart-melting impact of that plangent bass guitar when it arrives… And when it comes back in at the end of that mournful middle-eight about how “Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids – in fact it’s cold as Hell.”

 

Here’s Elton performing the song for the very first time at the Royal Festival Hall in 1972, where he ran through the entire Honky Chateau album with his band of Davey Johnstone (guitar), Dee Murray (bass) and Nigel Olsson (drums). The song – full title Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going To Be A Long, Long Time) – reached No.2 in April 1972.