Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
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THE RECORDING ROOM — Some songs are so iconic and timeless that it's hard to imagine a time when they didn't exist. For example, it's hard to remember a time when "Bohemian Rhapsody" wasn't available to get kids nodding their heads or when "Stairway to Heaven" wasn't around to make teenagers and adults everywhere want to learn the guitar.
Another one of these songs is Elton John's "Tiny Dancer." The song was written by John and Bernie Taupin, and Rolling Stone listed it as one of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
But how did this song come about? Well, let's watch this video and find out.
This clip from 1970 shows John at the piano, Taupin on a couch and Maxine Feibelman, Taupin's girlfriend at the time, close by. John starts talking about this one he "sort of did the other day" and announces it's called "Tiny Dancer." That's not a song you just casually mention you "did the other day," but you realize no one else had heard this yet and he was reading the lyrics Taupin had written off a piece of paper.
John goes onto explain that Taupin wrote the song about Feibelman, who Taupin later married and divorced, and then John starts to play the unmistakable notes.
There is something about hearing it played when it wasn't much more than a thought bouncing around John's and Taupin's minds along with the tiny dancer herself listening. You can see her face light up as she hears the song. While I have no doubt she was flattered, my guess is that she was also stunned, like the rest of us, as she heard one of the greatest songs ever written.
Enjoy these two minutes of recorded history. Hopefully, they've made your day a little better.
