In the five decades sinceElton Johnreleased"Rocket Man (I Think It’s Gonna Be a Long, Long Time)“on April 17, 1972, the sweeping ballad has become a go-to pop culture shorthand — not only for John himself, but also for pundits, innovators and even a U.S. President.
“Rocket Man” was the follow-up single to John’s breakout ballad"Your Song"and quickly became a top-10, triple-platinum hit. It gave the singer his nickname and eventually inspired the title of hisOscar-winning2019 musical biopic.
Clearly, some things are worth remembering. Below, we celebrate of the song’s anniversary with a few more highlights from its history, including some unexpected, starry connections.
Elton John apparently didn’t know the actual inspiration for the song for 44 years
“Do you know,” replied John, “I never knew that?”
The Bowie Connection
Three days after The Starman’s passing, John performed a mashup of “Space Oddity” and “Rocket Man” at a concert in Los Angeles, telling the crowd that Bowie “was innovative, he was boundary-changing and he danced to his own tune — which in any artist is really rare,” according toThe Independent.
“Rocket Man” has become something of a good luck charm
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And it certainly didn’t hurt thatDua Lipadropped a few bars from “Rocket Man” into the chorus of"Cold Heart,“her duet with John that reworked his 1989 song “Sacrifice.” It topped theBillboardTop 40 and went platinum around the globe.
“Rocket Man” has a birthday twin
Happy birthday,Jennifer Garner! The13 Going on 30star was born on the exact day that the tune was released, which means they turned 50 —and fabulous!— together.
Steve Granitz/WireImage
If you cannot conceive of a reggae-inflected version of “Rocket Man,” even in yourwildestimagination … you don’t have to!
John and Taupin tapped Kate Bush to perform a cover of the tune for their 1991Two Rooms. The “Don’t Give Up” singer, a long-time fan of John, was thrilled.
“From the age of 11, Elton John was my biggest hero,” she wrote in hernote on the back of the “Rocket Man”/“Candle in the Wind” single. “When I asked to be involved in this project and was given the choice of a track it was like being asked ‘would you like to fulfill a dream? would you like to be Rocket Man?’… yes, I would.”
Suffice it to say, the musical direction she chose to go in was unexpected, but that didn’t mean it suffered in sales — it went to No. 12 on the U.K. charts and No. 2 in Australia.
Space Ventura?
Perhaps the only version stranger than Bush’s take wasJim Carrey’s 1998cameo at John’s concert in Anaheim, California.
The song even factored into a tense moment forinternational diplomacy— as a tool of psychological warfare
Former PresidentDonald Trumphas a well-documentedpenchant for bombastic rock,disco anthemsandBroadway belters, but his mind for musical references reached a new echelon when he called North Korean’s Kim Jong Un “Rocket Man” during an address to the United Nations (he eventually switched it up to “Little Rocket Man” on many occasions after). A year later, Trump reportedly sent his frenemy a personally signed copy of the song as a would-be coup de grâce during high-stakes diplomatic negotiations.
Alas, the jab didn’t land. An insider told South Korean newspaperChosun Ilboin 2018 that “Trump asked Kim if he knew the song and Kim said no.”
STR/AFP/Getty; Douglas Gorenstein/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty.
“Rocket Man” may have actually found its way to the final frontier.
“We’re just at the beginning [of a new phase of space travel], but how miraculous that beginning is — how extraordinary it is to be part of that beginning,” said the man most famous for portraying space explorer extraordinaire Captain James T. Kirk.
And though it hasn’t been confirmed, it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine Shatner might have had a certain tune in his mind while he was soaring through the sky, “high as a kite … on such a timeless flight.”
source: people.com
