This was far from being Elton John’s best single. But it would spark a superior cover version by The Who nearly 20 years later.
I had loved Elton John up to this point. I had all his albums from the very start but I don’t think I liked any of them after Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. And I never much cared for this uncharacteristically rocky single.
Delving through the archives, however, I find it’s far better suited to The Who, who covered it for a 1991 Elton John tribute album that I was unaware of. I rather wish I still was, now that I’ve heard Kate Bush warble her weggae wendition of Wocket Man, which is one of the worst cover versions I have ever heard.
Anyway, this was a lone success in a morass of ill-advised coverage – Rod Stewart rasping through Your Song like a chainsmoker gasping for a fag, Tina Turner somehow managing to make the awful The Bitch Is Back even worse, Joe Cocker bellowing Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me like a violent threat and The Beach Boys gently murdering Crocodile Rock, probably the least suitable song for their harmonies in the whole of Elton’s back catalogue.
The Who were always aggressive in concert and this video montage, cleverly syncing the song to archive footage, satisfies every Who fan who ever enjoyed seeing Pete Townshend smash a guitar.
He must have got through several thousand pounds worth over the course of this highly invigorating five minutes: that rarest of things – a cover version that improves on the original (though that’s largely because the original is far from a classic).