Weiland was one of three filmmakers selected to create videos for a YouTube-supported competition called The Cut, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of John and Taupin\u2019s songwriting partnership.<\/p>\n
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Weiland\u2019s video for Tiny Dancer captures the free-spirited characters of LA and is a sun-soaked homage to the Golden State. It also evokes that city\u2019s bohemian spirit at the time.<\/p>\n
Elton John – Tiny Dancer – YouTube
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Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n In a short film about the making of the video<\/a>, John and Taupin can be seen sitting on a sun-dappled balcony at John\u2019s villa, watching the video on a laptop as Weiland looks on.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n \u201cLove, it, love it,\u201d beams Taupin as he turns to face Weiland when the video ends. \u201cThe humour and the pathos you\u2019ve got going there is just fabulous.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so brilliant, because it sums up the LA you were writing about,\u201d says John to Taupin. \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely beautiful,\u201d he tells Weiland. \u201cIt\u2019s cinematic, it tells a story\u2026 it\u2019s just got the essence of the song.\u201d<\/p>\n For all its status as a classic song from the rich vein of Elton John\u2019s early \u201970s back catalogue, the song Tiny Dancer was actually something of a slow burner.<\/p>\n Released as a single in February 1972, it was the opening song on John\u2019s fourth album Madman Across The Water (1971) but reached only No 41 in the US and wasn\u2019t even released in the UK.<\/p>\n The disappointing chart performance was partly due to its epic running time of 6:12. The radio edit for the single stripped the song of its subtleties, its slow, graceful build, Elton John\u2019s inspired arrangement and his stellar performance in the studio.<\/p>\n What to read next<\/p>\n But in the years that followed Tiny Dancer grew to become one of John\u2019s best-loved songs, appreciated in its epic entirety when embraced by FM radio\u2019s emerging AOR format in the mid- to late-\u201970s.<\/p>\n With its stunning melody, sweeping strings and country-pop tinges, Tiny Dancer would slowly sear itself into the public consciousness.<\/p>\n Elton John – Tiny Dancer (Live On Old Grey Whistle Test 1971) – YouTube Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n It was late 1970 when Bernie Taupin made his first trip to the US, an experience that inspired the lyrics for Tiny Dancer.<\/p>\n Taupin wanted to capture the feel and the vibrancy of California at the time. In particular, he was struck by the young women around the Sunset Strip, who appeared freer, more expressive, and very different from the women he had known growing up in England.<\/p>\n \u201cWe came to California in the fall of 1970 and it seemed like sunshine just radiated from the populace,\u201d Taupin told Rolling Stone magazine<\/a>. \u201cI guess I was trying to capture the spirit of that time, encapsulated by the women we met, especially at the clothes stores and restaurants and bars all up and down the Sunset Strip. They were these free spirits, sexy, all hip-huggers and lacy blouses, very ethereal in the way they moved.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cThey were just so different from what I\u2019d been used to in England. They had this thing about embroidering your clothes. They wanted to sew patches on your jeans. They mothered you and slept with you. It was the perfect Oedipal complex.\u201d<\/p>\n In the interview, Taupin stated that the song was also inspired by his girlfriend at the time and future wife, Maxine Feibelman, referred to in the song as \u201cseamstress for the band\u201d.<\/p>\n Tiny Dancer (Remastered 2016) – YouTube Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n Taupin weaved elements of the people he met into the emerging song, conjuring up the freewheeling essence, bohemian style and the optimism of early 1970s Los Angeles.<\/p>\n In a 1971 interview featured in the US TV series Our American Stories<\/a>, Elton John explained how he transformed Taupin\u2019s lyrics into the song Tiny Dancer. John is seen seated at a white upright piano, wearing an orange satin jacket with huge yellow polka dots. He is holding sheets of paper on which Taupin\u2019s lyrics are written.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are all lyrics here and I just sift through them,\u201d says John. \u201cThere\u2019s one that I\u2019ve sort of done the other day called Tiny Dancer\u2026 that was the one that I fancied writing, mainly because I knew Bernie would like me to do this one because it\u2019s about his girlfriend.\u201d<\/p>\n John then takes the lyric sheet and places it on the music rack in front of him.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, you look at it and the words \u2018Blue-jean baby, LA lady, seamstress for the band\/Pretty-eyed, pirate smile, you\u2019ll marry a music man\u2019. \u2018Ballerina\u2026\u2019 as soon as you get to the word ballerina you know it\u2019s not going to be fast, it\u2019s got to be kind of gentle and quite slow.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe way it\u2019s written here,\u201d says John, pointing at the lyric sheet in front of him, \u201cis a verse, a middle eight and a chorus, then another verse, and I just ran it through and put two verses together, then a middle eight then a chorus and then back to the verse sort of thing. It happens very quickly. It sounds long but it sort of starts off\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n And then John proceeds to play the new song, going straight in on the first verse. It\u2019s a beautifully natural rendition.<\/p>\n At its core, Tiny Dancer is a love song, a heartfelt tribute from Taupin to his future wife. But what is striking is John\u2019s stunning melodic prowess in imbuing Taupin\u2019s words with such achingly beautiful and graceful melodies. The speed at which he works is also impressive.<\/p>\n \u201cReg has to write very fast,\u201d said Taupin in the same Our American Stories programme, still referring to John by his real name, Reginald Dwight, \u201cbecause he hasn\u2019t got the patience to spend hours or days on something, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n Elton John – Tiny Dancer (Live From Dodger Stadium, USA \/ 2022) – YouTube Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n Tiny Dancer is written in the key of C major<\/a> and is anchored by John\u2019s iconic, arpeggiated piano riff, which carries the rhythm. Much of the power of Tiny Dancer stems from its slow build. The chorus doesn\u2019t actually arrive until two-and-a-half minutes in.<\/p>\n Up until that point, the song meanders through a verse and a lengthy pre-chorus before looping back, while instruments are steadily added to the mix.<\/p>\n Trident Studios in the heart of Soho in London was the facility chosen to record Tiny Dancer and the Madman Across The Water album from which it came. Ever since The Beatles<\/a> recorded Hey Jude there on 31 July and 1 August 1968, Trident had become the studio of choice for artists such as David Bowie, drawn by Trident\u2019s relaxed creative ethos, its Ampex eight-track recorder and its 24-hour opening times.<\/p>\n John had recorded his eponymous second album (1970) and its follow-up Tumbleweed Connection (1970) at Trident, and on Tiny Dancer he would once again be playing Trident\u2019s house piano<\/a>, a handmade 1898 Bechstein grand which has since attained legendary status for its bright, distinctive sound.<\/p>\n \u201cI have heard many pianos in my time but I have never heard a better \u2018rock\u2019 piano than that one,\u201d wrote Ken Scott, in-house engineer at EMI Abbey Road Studios who joined Trident Studios in 1969.<\/p>\n Tiny Dancer was recorded on 9 August 1971 and was produced by Gus Dudgeon.<\/p>\n The song features English pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole. Cole\u2019s pedal steel glides into the mix at 0:53, just before the final line of the first verse \u201cAnd now she\u2019s in me, always with me\/Tiny dancer in my hand\u201d, before the backing choir, acoustic rhythm guitar and the rest of the rhythm section fully join in.<\/p>\n Another notable feature of the recording is Paul Buckmaster\u2019s sweeping, soaring string arrangements, which first really make their presence felt at 2:45 on the chorus and remain a lush, strident force throughout the rest of the epic track.<\/p>\n Then there is the choir of ten backing vocalists \u2013 including prolific session musician Tony Burrows, bassist Dee Murray and John\u2019s touring drummer at the time, Nigel Olsson.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a masterful arrangement from John, beginning with an intimate piano accompaniment, then each verse slowly building the emotional intensity right up to the chorus. John\u2019s playing anchors everything. It is both elegant and tasteful yet gutsy as the track opens up and the melody ascends.<\/p>\n The strings soar but never overwhelm, while the backing vocals bring a communal feel to the song. Throughout it all, the emotional impact builds.<\/p>\n Tiny Dancer is a song that could so easily have sounded schmaltzy but John hits just the right tone vocally. There\u2019s a wonderfully rich quality to his vocal take and he steers clear of oversinging, delivering instead a wholly natural and emotive performance.<\/p>\n Despite its disappointing chart placing in the US, the song would resonate across the subsequent decades, sometimes in the most unlikely of environs.<\/p>\n In 1990, John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers<\/a> performed his first impromptu performance of Tiny Dancer at the Pinkpop Festival in Holland and he has since performed the song at least 50 times during Red Hot Chili Peppers shows.<\/p>\n John Frusciante – Tiny Dancer [HD]. – YouTube
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