Watch: Sir Elton John stunned after learning inspiration behind 'Rocket Man'
Sir Elton John was surprised to learn true inspiration behind his 1970s hit 'Rocket Man'...
'Rocket Man' is one of the biggest songs released by Sir Elton John.
The pop star released the song in the 1970s and it became his first number one hit to top the charts.
The song was written by both Elton and musician Bernie Taupin. According to NME, the two musicians responded to an advertisement for songwriters.
Elton explained in an interview posted on Instagram that it was not a difficult song to write.
“‘Rocket Man’ was our first-ever Number One record I think – and it was on the ‘Honky Chateau’ record,” Elton said.
“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,” he said.
READ: Elton John’s biggest songs
But to his surprise, Taupin had a different interpretation of what inspired the song and the title.
“It was actually a song inspired by Ray Bradbury from his book of science-fiction short stories called 'The Illustrated Man',” he said.
“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,” said Taupin.
Elton said this was the first time he heard this story.
“Do you know, I never knew that,” he said on the video.
Watch the interview below.
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More facts about 'Rocket Man'
- The song has been certified double platinum.
- It has also been listed in Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 songs of all time list.
- It is taken from the album, 'Honky Château'.
- In 2019, 'Rocketman' film was released based on the life and career of British musician Elton John.