Rocket Man (song)



"Rocket Man" (officially titled "Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time)") is a song composed by Elton John and Bernie Taupin and originally performed by Elton John. The song first appeared on Elton John's 1972 album Honky Château and became a hit single, rising to No. 2 in the UK and No. 6 in the US. On 30 August 2019, the song was certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry for sales of 600,000 digital downloads and streaming equivalent sales. The song was certified 3 times platinum in the US as well.

Rolling Stone lists it as No. 245 of its 500 greatest songs of all time.

Song information
The song was inspired by the short story "The Rocket Man" in The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury, and echoes the theme of David Bowie's 1969 song "Space Oddity" (both recordings were produced by Gus Dudgeon). But according to an account in Elizabeth Rosenthal's book His Song: The Musical Journey of Elton John, the song was inspired by Taupin's sighting of either a shooting star or a distant aeroplane.

The song describes a Mars-bound astronaut's mixed feelings at leaving his family in order to do his job. Rosenthal's account goes on to relate that the notion of astronauts no longer being perceived as heroes, but in fact as an "everyday occupation", led Taupin to the song's opening lines: "She packed my bags last night, pre-flight. Zero hour: 9 a.m. And I'm gonna be high as a kite by then."

Musically, the song is a highly arranged ballad anchored by piano, with atmospheric texture added by synthesizer (played on the recording by engineer Dave Hentschel) and processed slide guitar. It is also known for being the first song in John's catalogue to feature what would become the signature backing vocal combination of his band at the time, Dee Murray, Nigel Olsson and Davey Johnstone.

"Rocket Man" was ranked #242 in the 2004 list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, though it dropped to #245 in the list's 2010 revision.

Another song called "Rocket Man" (and also based on Bradbury's short story "The Rocket Man") was released by the musical group Pearls Before Swine on their 1970 album The Use of Ashes. In an interview in Billboard magazine, Taupin acknowledged that the song, written by Tom Rapp, had been a direct inspiration for his own lyrics. Rosenthal's account indicates that Rapp's lyrics were inspired by the writings of noted science-fiction author Ray Bradbury. Due to some similarities in Elton John's "Rocket Man," some presume this song might also be an allusion to David Bowie's character Major Tom. Bowie himself made the connection soon after the song was released by calling out "Mr. Rocket Man". In tribute after Bowie's death John performed a piano rendition that combined the two songs.

The first stanza of "Rocket Man" was thought of by Bernie Taupin while he was on the motorway heading to his parents' home; he had to "repeat it to himself for two hours," which was "unfortunate", but in later interviews he said that since it gave him a hit, it was all worthwhile.

The song has been a staple of John's concerts. Among numerous other performances, John played "Rocket Man" at the launch site of Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998.

The song includes the line, ""And I'm gonna be high as a kite by then". The phrase "high as a kite" is a common idiom often used to refer to intoxication due to recreational drug use - typically cannabis. Although it is not generally assumed that lyricist Bernie Taupin intended the double entendre, the song was written and released during the era of stoner culture and could be interpreted as an allusion to such activity.

Music video
In May 2017, an official music video for "Rocket Man" premiered at the Cannes Film Festival as a winner of Elton John: The Cut, a competition organised in partnership with AKQA, Pulse Films, and YouTube in honour of the fiftieth anniversary of his songwriting relationship with Bernie Taupin. The competition called upon independent filmmakers to submit treatments for music videos for one of three Elton John songs from the 1970s, with each song falling within a specific concept category. "Rocket Man" was designated for the animation category, and was co-directed by Iranian refugee Majid Adin and Irish animation director Stephen McNally; the video was inspired by Adin's own migration to England, portraying a character envisioning himself as an astronaut to draw parallels between the song's lyrics and the experiences of a refugee.

Track listing
All songs written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin.

In 2003, Universal Records released both a 12-inch vinyl (promotional only) & CD maxi-single with three new remixes of the song:
 * A. "Rocket Man (KDME remix)" – 4:20
 * B1. "Rocket Man 03" – 4:01
 * B2. "Rocket Man (Royal Garden's Radio mix)" – 4:19

Of these, "Rocket Man 03" was also included on the Rocket/Island/Mercury EP "Remixed," along with four other remixes of Elton recordings.

Personnel

 * Elton John – piano, lead vocals
 * Davey Johnstone – electric slide & acoustic guitars, backing vocals
 * Dee Murray – bass guitar, backing vocals
 * Nigel Olsson – drums, backing vocals
 * David Hentschel – ARP synthesizer

Kate Bush version
Kate Bush released a cover of "Rocket Man" in 1991 as part of the Elton John/Bernie Taupin tribute album Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin. Her reggae-inflected version of "Rocket Man" was a commercial success, reaching number 12 on the UK singles chart and number two in Australia (held off the top spot by Julian Lennon's "Saltwater"). In 2007, the track won The Observer readers' award for Greatest Cover of all time. The B-side of the single was Bush's recording of another Elton John classic, "Candle in the Wind."

Track listings
All songs written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin.

7" vinyl / cassette single

12" vinyl / CD single

Personnel
All titles:
 * Kate Bush – keyboards, vocals, producer
 * Del Palmer – engineer

Additional musicians on "Rocket Man":
 * Davy Spillane – uilleann pipes
 * Del Palmer – bass
 * Alistair Anderson – concertina
 * Charlie Morgan – drums
 * Alan Murphy – guitar

David Fonseca version
The Portuguese singer David Fonseca released his version of the song as a single in Portugal reaching #12 in the Portuguese Top 20. The song, full title "Rocket Man (I Think It's Going To Be A Long, Long Time)", also appears on David Fonseca's third album Dreams in Colour released in 2007 and on the Dreams in Colour: Tour Edition released in 2008. The music video was directed by David Fonseca himself. Fonseca also regularly performs the single live in his concerts.

Other cover versions

 * At the 5th Saturn Awards Ceremony, which aired as the Science Fiction Film Awards in January 1978, Taupin introduced William Shatner's spoken word interpretation of the song. It used chroma key video techniques to simultaneously portray three different images of Shatner, representing the different facets of the Rocket Man's character. The performance built up a cult following, and was parodied on the U.S. animated series Animaniacs, Family Guy, Freakazoid!, Futurama, The Simpsons, the Canadian CGI series ReBoot, and in the video for "Where It's At" by Beck. On a 1992 episode of Late Night with David Letterman, Chris Elliott parodied Shatner's performance, complete with chroma key effects. Shatner re-recorded the song for his 2011 album, Seeking Major Tom. In his book What Were They Thinking? The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History, author David Hofstede ranked Shatner's performance at #17 on the list.
 * In 1997 Me First and the Gimme Gimmes featured a punk rock version of the song on their debut album Have a Ball.
 * Daphne Rubin-Vega released a dance version in 2003, which reached the Club play charts
 * In 2009, rock musicians Maynard James Keenan of Tool and Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips collaborated on a cover version for the musical documentary film The Heart is a Drum Machine, and while both musicians appeared in the film, the cover song did not. It was made available online in 2010.
 * In 2018, rapper Young Thug prominently sampled "Rocket Man" in his song "High", as featured on his EP On the Rvn. John, a fan of Young Thug's, gave his approval for the song in 2016.
 * Taron Egerton recorded the song for the 2019 movie Rocketman.

Use in media
"Rocket Man" has been featured in several films and television series.


 * Notable uses in cinema include the 1996 action film The Rock, Disney's 1997 comedy film RocketMan, the 1998 biography film Without Limits, the science fiction film K-PAX (2001), the 2017 action spy comedy Kingsman: The Golden Circle, which also stars John as himself, and the closing credits of The Astronaut Farmer (2007). In the episode "The Friendship Contraction" of The Big Bang Theory (season 5), aired 2012, Howard Wolowitz fails to get the title as his nickname before flying into space.
 * The song was also played during the 40th and 45th anniversaries of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing and the day after the death of Neil Armstrong in the Disneyland and Walt Disney World resorts in Anaheim, California and Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
 * The Norwegian company Statoil also used the song for one of their commercials, part of the song being covered by Silje Gulbrandsen Hagen and the latter part sung by Elton John.
 * The 2005 BBC series Rocket Man was named after the song, and used it in the opening credits.
 * Ninja Sex Party (NSP) covered this song on their album Under the Covers, Vol. II released in October 2017. It is the last song on the cover album.
 * In February 2018, Jim Bob's Music Massacre dissected the lyrics in S01 E01 after identifying that they did not quite make sense.