Everything about Tiny Dancer totally explained
"Tiny Dancer" is a
1971 song by
Elton John with lyrics by
Bernie Taupin. It appears on John's fifth album,
Madman Across the Water.
History
The song features a
piano-based melody during verses, typically inscrutable Taupin lyrics during the chorus, and an arrangement that at the start features
pedal steel guitar and light
percussion but, transitioning subtly halfway through one of the choruses, by the end is driven by
Paul Buckmaster's dynamic
strings, along with a barely heard backing
choir. Clocking at 6:13, it was one of the longer radio singles of the period.
While "Tiny Dancer" was initially a non-starter as a
single – reaching only #41 on the
U.S. pop chart and not charting at all in the UK – the song slowly became one of John's most popular songs. A fixture on
adult contemporary and rock radio stations, the song grew in popularity.
It was ranked #387 on the 2004
List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Use in popular culture
Tiny Dancer is one of the songs featured at the
Fremont Street Experience in
Las Vegas. Along with John's "
Bennie and the Jets", "Tiny Dancer" appears prominently in the 1970s movie
Aloha, Bobby and Rose as well as in the 1990s film
My Girl 2.
The song received an additional boost in popularity in 2000 after appearing in a scene in the
Cameron Crowe film
Almost Famous, where it's played over the sound system of a tour bus and no one can resist the urge to sing along to the chorus. John has attested to the film's popularization of the song, saying in 2004, "I hadn't played it much until Cameron Crowe put it in
Almost Famous. [Now] we get more requests for it than anything else." An instrumental reprise of the track can also be heard at the end of the movie where Russell Hammond (
Billy Crudup) visits William Miller (
Patrick Fugit) at his home.
Other versions
"Tiny Dancer" has often been covered by
John Frusciante since the early
1990s, when playing a solo with the
Red Hot Chili Peppers, by
Dave Grohl on
The Late Late Show with
Craig Kilborn, by
Ben Folds on his 2002 album
Ben Folds Live, and by
Tim McGraw in 2002 on
Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors. McGraw also performed the song with John at the 2002
American Music Awards.
A sample of the "Tiny Dancer" chorus is featured in a mash-up by
Girl Talk called "Smash Your Head" (from the 2006 album
Night Ripper).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Tiny Dancer'.
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