In a new interview released on his social media platforms, Elton John has learned the truth about one of his biggest songs, ”Rocket Man”. In the interview, John sits down with his longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin as the two discuss the Honky Chateau single.
“‘Rocket Man’ was our first-ever number one record, I think – and it was on the Honky Chateau record,” John says. “It was a pretty easy song to write a melody to because it’s a song about space, so it’s quite a spacious song.”
“It was actually a song inspired by Ray Bradbury from his book of science-fiction short stories called The Illustrated Man,” Taupin explained. “In that book, there was a story called The Rocket Man, which was about how astronauts in the future would become sort of an everyday job… so I kinda took that idea and ran with it.”
John then had a realisation. “Do you know, I never knew that,” he claimed. John and Taupin famously write their material separately from each other, with Taupin often writing lyrics in one room and John composing music in the other.
Originally released as a single in 1972, ‘‘Rocket Man’’ was not actually John’s first number one hit. ‘‘Rocket Man’’ went to number two in the UK, getting stuck behind T. Rex’s ‘‘Metal Guru’’. In America, the song would top out at number six on the Billboard Hot 100. John would get his first US number one in early 1973 with ‘‘Crocodile Rock’’ and would have to wait until 1976 to hit number one in his home country with the Kiki Dee duet ‘‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’’. (FarOut)