Elton John has long been rock ‘n’ roll royalty. He’s the number four best-selling artist of all time, behind just The Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Elvis Presley, and he’s received all the critical accolades to go with the commercial success. He’s an EGOT winner (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony), and he’s been knighted for his work in music and charity. It’s hard to find much more success.
As he aged into the elder statesman role, it would have made sense to kick back and enjoy his status. John’s taken a different route, however, continually supporting younger artists. Working with Brandi Carlile for Who Believes In Angels? made sense; not only are they friends, but she’s long proclaimed him to be one of her inspirations. Many of his collaborations have been much more surprising, some of them even downright shocking. They’re worth revisiting as a reminder of just how curious and engaged John has been in his later years.
10
Don’t Go Breaking My Heart
With RuPaul (1994)
Elton John originally made “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” a hit in 1976 when duetting with Kiki Dee. The song went to number one in both the UK and the US, and it hung around as an anodyne bit of niceness from two talented singers. In the mid-’90s, John took a different approach to the number, joining up with drag queen RuPaul to bring the track to the club, and to his platinum-selling Duets album.
Oddly, Kiki Dee also appears on Duets, this time singing Cole Porter’s “True Love” with John. The track climbed to #2 in the UK.
This time around, the song gets produced by disco legend Giorgio Moroder, which gives the new version its distinctive flavor. John sounds surprisingly invested in his performance of an old song. RuPaul does their best to keep up, and it mostly works. The performance sounds a bit dated, but it felt fresh at the time. It pairs well with Cher’s “Believe,” which wouldn’t come out for another few years.
9
Live Like Horses
With Luciano Pavarotti (1996)
If you were going to sing with an opera star in the 1990s, it would make sense that it was Luciano Pavarotti. By that point, the tenor had crossed over into mainstream consciousness; The Three Tenors performing at the World Cup didn’t hurt. Even so, pop stars and opera singers don’t often get together. John can fit well into nearly any scene, but could he partner with a booming Italian vibrato?
It turns out he could. “Live Like Horses” uses restraint and a careful arrangement to allow both singers moments to shine, and it became another top 10 hit. The two never sing together, and it’s still hard to think about how they might have been able to harmonize with such different approaches. Even so, they pull off what feels like a pretty natural exchange. Neither of them should count this cut among their greatest moments, but it is good enough to warrant a spot on each of their greatest hits, a tribute to each artist’s flexibility.
8
Stan
With Eminem (2001)
Plenty of factors worked against the likelihood of this combination. John was by now a pop legend, moving on to work like The Lion King. Eminem was a young, angry rapper. Moreover, he was frequently accused of homophobia, primarily since his lyrics regularly included certain slurs. At the 2001 Grammys, then, it was a shock when Eminem performed “Stan,” his hit about an obsessive fan, and Elton turned up to sing Dido’s part (and play piano).
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The performance was an astounding success, even becoming the version included on Eminem’s Curtain Call: The Hits. Even more surprisingly, John and Eminem became friends through the experience. John stood up for Eminem, refuting claims about the rapper’s apparent homophobia, and helped the younger artist with his own addiction issues. The two have remained friends since, and their initial Grammys performance stands as a powerful reminder of the connections possible through music.
7
Black Gives Way To Blue
With Alice In Chains (2009)
Alice In Chains mixes grunge and metal for their sound, and neither component suggests compatibility with Elton John. However, when the band reconvened after a lengthy hiatus, they brought in Elton John to play piano on “Black Gives Way To Blue,” a tribute to Layne Staley, the band’s singer who had passed away a few years earlier.
The song has little of an Elton John feel to it, which makes sense. It’s a bleak lament, a track circling around core thoughts and musical patterns. John holds back, allowing Jerry Cantrell’s pained vocals to deliver the emotional force. John’s presence is more than just a grab for star power. Both Cantrell and the departed Staley were John fans from an early age. That might not be apparent in their music, but it certainly directed their paths, and John’s appearance here makes for a fitting tribute to an artist lost too early.
6
All Of The Lights
With Kanye West & Others (2010)
“All Of The Lights” by Kanye West takes exactly the opposite approach. It’s a big, star-studded affair, featuring 14 guest vocalists, with Rihanna leading the way – and including Elton John (who also plays piano). The production is just as overblown, with an orchestral arrangement at the center of its maximalist sensibility, a noticeable shift from the electro his West’s preceding album 808s & Heartbreak. The song received plenty of acclaim and won a slew of awards.
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Even so, it stands out for the oddity of the Elton John appearance. Most of the other guests were West’s colleagues, hip-hop or R&B stars who benefited from their appearance. John’s piano and background vocals are easy to miss, and there’s no obvious personal connection. It’s as if John just felt like trying something new with all the cool kids. Who knows what he took away from the experience, but the song certainly made good use of its celebrity lineup.
5
The Pink Phantom
With Gorillaz & 6LACK (2020)
By 2020, Elton John had few areas left to explore, so, in a way, it made sense that he headed for the two-dimensional world to collaborate with a cartoon band. Gorillaz, of course, isn’t just a cartoon, but the work of Blur’s Damon Albarn. Albarn works with an array of other artists for the Song Machine project, and for this cut, he brought in John and R&B singer 6lack.
By 2020, Elton John had few areas left to explore.
The song maintains a weirdness, a steady piano pulse and a mix of traditional and autotuned vocals. It effectively bridges the gap between the physical and virtual worlds, fitting for a piece recorded during the pandemic lockdown. It never takes off, which makes it an odd sort of number to bring Elton John in for, but he gets to be a cartoon character in a pink suit and typically wild glasses, so at least there’s that.
4
Cold Heart (Pnau Remix)
With Dua Lipa (2021)
Young pop singer Dua Lipa had just hit a peak with Future Nostalgia and its number-one spot on the chart when she teamed up with Elton John for “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix).” The song brings together four of John’s older songs in a unique medley, done in part by dance group Pnau. The new production takes the songs into the club, with Lipa playing the role of disco diva.
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Not much about this plan should work, but it does. The performance is icy in a good way, and the mirrorballed renditon of “Rocket Man” hits in an end-of-the-night kind of way. The song became the lead single of John’s The Lockdown Sessions, tearing up the charts and making noise at various awards ceremonies. In a sense, the pop-to-club transition compares to John’s collaboration with RuPaul, but this one feels more timeless, and the medley gives it a pleasing element of complexity.
3
Nothing Else Matters
With Miley Cyrus (2021)
Elton John and Miley Cyrus didn’t work together for the first time in 2021. In 2018, they partnered for a Grammys performance of John’s “Tiny Dancer,” which went over well enough. The fact that they would reunite isn’t surprising, but the fact that they did so to cover a Metallica classic might make this song one of the oddest John moments of all – and we haven’t even mentioned that cellist Yo-Yo Ma plays on it as well.
The Watt credited on this track is the same artist who produced John and Carlile’s Who Believes in Angels?
It turns out both artists just like the song. Cyrus began playing it in 2019, starting at Glastonbury (and she’s working on an entire album of Metallica covers). With John, Ma, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo playing, the song becomes an epic. Cyrus’ verse works better than expected, and John holds the song together with his playing.
2
Picture
With Eddie Vedder (2022)
Maybe working with Alice In Chains opened the door to more grunge work. Maybe collaborating with Eddie Vedder on The Lockdown Sessions revealed a natural connection. Maybe, as has become apparent, Elton John just likes playing new music with new people. Whatever the reason, the Pearl Jam frontman brought John in for “Picture,” a centerpiece of Vedder’s solo album Earthling.
Earthling contains another connection to classic rock, the song “Mrs. Mills” is about a vintage piano named for a pop pianist. Ringo Starr plays drums on the track.
Elton sounds more like himself here than on many of his collaborations. He plays in a classic rock ‘n’ roll style, bouncing along as he did throughout his best albums. He and Vedder trade lines, and they both sound like they’re having a blast. The song sounds like a “picture of hope,” and if it might be a little easygoing in its rollicking, it’s still a good time.
1
Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)
With Orville Peck (2024)
Orville Peck is a South African-born, country-music-singing masked man. He sings like Johnny Cash as he finds ways to make his music weirder. By now, it should be clear that he has enough going on to make him appealing to Elton John. The pianist joined him on a track for Peck’s duets collection Stampede, performing one of John’s best and rowdiest hits, “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting).”
The pairing says something about Peck, too, who performed mostly with Americana acts but also connected with unlikely acts like Kylie Minogue and Diplo. Adventurousness suits the match and the song, and Peck and John simply get down to fun on an old hit. John, naturally, sounds a little older than he did on the 1973 version, but it doesn’t matter. Different generations and different genres meet here, and it makes for yet one more fantastic and unexpected collaboration for Elton John.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
