What are your three favorite Elton John songs?
This is one of the hardest music questions I’ve ever been asked.
A few weeks ago my girlfriend asked me this one. And I thought – what a hateful question. Seriously – three? With some effort I might be able to get it down to ten or fifteen.
But it was a music question. So I thought. And pondered. And listened and relistened.
I may finally have an answer.
Number 1 is:
- Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
And numbers 2 and 3 are, I think:
- Tiny Dancer
- Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me
Although don’t hold me to it. My mind is prone to sudden changes. And I can’t stress enough just how close these are:
- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
- Rocket Man
- Bitter Fingers
- Tower of Babel
- Teacher I Need You
- Texan Love Song
And there are several others on the “strong maybe/honorable mention” list.
- Your Song
- Someone Saved My Life Tonight
- Captain Fantastic
- Island Girl
- Bennie and the Jets
- I Feel Like a Bullet in the Gun of Robert Ford
- Philadelphia Freedom
- Candle in the Wind (original, not the Princess Die wankfest)
- I’m Still Standing
- Little Jeannie
- Madman Across the Water
- Take Me to the Pilot
- I’ve Seen That Movie Too
- We All Fall in Love Sometimes
- Grow Some Funk of Your Own
Your turn. What are your three favorite Elton John tunes?
lullaby pit 
It varies from year to year, but my current three favorites are….
1. “Sick City”
–Info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sick_City_(song)
–Song: https://youtu.be/Ae_MGnJWs14
2. “Crazy Water”
–Info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Water
–Song: https://youtu.be/DQKN2XMDgOs
3. “Birds”
–Info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_from_the_West_Coast
–Song: https://youtu.be/uP_Zx99nV78
“Funeral For A Friend/ Love Lies Bleeding/// Philadelphia Freedom/// Tiny Dancer..
Candle in the Wind
Someone saved my Life Tonight
Tiny Dancer
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (we had a recording of my cousin Billy singing this into a banana as a mic)
The Bitch Is Back
Candle In the Wind (all versions)
From Rolling Stone in September, 2015…
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/readers-poll-the-10-best-elton-john-deep-cuts-20150902
About half of these are in my top three or on the honorable mention list.
So many lists of this sort are nothing more than trolling, but this little EJ exercise serves to remind us just how insanely good he was for a long time. Probably not much worth talking about after Rock of the Westies (except 2 Low for 0, which had its moments), but before that? Gods…
We always see stories on the best bands of all time, but comparatively fewer aimed at the best solo artist of all time. I tend to knee-jerk default to Bowie on that, but sure Elton is top 5, right?
My choices are probably pretty pedestrian and not in the deep cuts, but I like what I like.
1. Your Song
2. Daniel
3. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
3 alternate. Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me
alternate 3 alternate. Tiny Dancer (I was going to make this #3, but I think I’ve been influenced by Almost Famous and probably wouldn’t have put it in the top 3 before that movie.
There’s nothing wrong with being influenced by Almost Famous. Part of why we love certain things is the context – where we were, what it meant, etc. AF is a fabulous reason to love a song.
Thanks Sam. My wife and I were just talking about how sometimes we just need to give permission to people for things, and that can make a big difference in what we feel free to do. Permission to grieve, cry, fail, laugh, be happy, or just admit we like a song because of it’s emotional impact in a movie.
Exactly. There are songs that define us because they were playing when they were playing.
I’m the same on “Tiny Dancer.” Before AF it was a great EJ song I liked. After that scene it was one of my favorites. I suspect a LOT of people would say the same, and this is why that was such a great film.
This scene was the center of the film and is why it was so important to a lot of us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZJizD49bwM