{"id":702302,"date":"2026-06-13T20:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T20:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/702302\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T20:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T20:28:10","slug":"the-elton-john-song-that-was-inspired-by-bernie-taupins-failed-romance-with-cher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/702302\/","title":{"rendered":"The Elton John Song That Was Inspired by Bernie Taupin\u2019s Failed Romance With Cher"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think everyone remembers \u201cDon\u2019t Go Breaking My Heart\u201d, the iconic duet that Elton John<\/a> did with Kiki Dee in 1976. Since then, the song has become a karaoke night staple and one of the most memorable songs from John\u2019s catalog. However, if you look into the song\u2019s history, you\u2019ll find that it actually has a forgotten B-side that even Taupin and John rarely acknowledge.<\/p>\n

That would be the song \u201cSnow Queen\u201d. And it was apparently inspired by a failed attempt at romance that Taupin had with 60s icon Cher.<\/p>\n

The song doesn\u2019t hold back, even describing Cher as having very little talent and a bad taste in men. Just take a look at the second verse.<\/p>\n

Your talons are tested
They\u2019re polished and they\u2019re shaped
Your talents are wasted
On men of no taste
But how about proving
That passion means more than
A wardrobe of gowns, TV ratings,
Fragile waist and a name.<\/p>\n

The song throws some pretty icy insults at the \u201cBelieve\u201d singer, to say the least.<\/p>\n

Taupin Is \u201cEmbarrassed\u201d by \u201cSnow Queen\u201d Now<\/p>\n

In his memoir, Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton, and Me<\/a>, Taupin actually admitted that to this day, he finds \u201cSnow Queen\u201d pretty embarrassing.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Snow Queen\u2019 wasn\u2019t a very good song, and it wasn\u2019t a very good idea,\u201d he writes. \u201cThere was no real purpose for it, the lyric portraying a version of Cher that didn\u2019t exist. I\u2019m still embarrassed by it now, \u2018Arms are spread like icicles.\u2019 It wasn\u2019t warranted, and even though both Elton and I apologized for it long ago, it was still dumb, dumb, dumb.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with People<\/a>, Taupin reiterated that he doesn\u2019t even like the song.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t change it. It\u2019s there, the damage is done,\u201d he told the magazine. \u201cI think probably at the time I made it known that I\u2019d written it about her, which was ridiculous. I mean, it was so stupid, and it\u2019s not even a good song! Let\u2019s just regard it as a grand mistake ultimately. I got a story out of it, I suppose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though it appears that he\u2019s not proud of \u201cSnow Queen\u201d now, it\u2019s hard not to wonder exactly what went down between the songwriter and the entertainer to warrant that kind of song.<\/p>\n

Photo by: Koh Hasebe\/Shinko Music\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I think everyone remembers \u201cDon\u2019t Go Breaking My Heart\u201d, the iconic duet that Elton John did with Kiki…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[53671,10332,88,216,17172],"class_list":["post-702302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-cher","tag-elton-john","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-pop-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}