The one song Elton John wishes he had written | CPT PPP Coverage

Meanwhile, Russell was prolific in his own right as a songwriter, developing his thunderous way of pounding the keys into masterpieces like ‘Shoot Out on the Plantation’. Lest we forget that Elton won a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, so he was raised around the best classical players of the day in his youth, so it’s high praise indeed that he eulogises Russell, stating: “He was my piano player idol at that time and probably still is.”

Thus, he left Elton starstruck when their circles collided. “When I first went to America he was in the audience of the second night of the Troubadour and I saw him,” Elton recalled. “I’ve looked at this mane of silver hair and I thought ‘Oh my god, it’s Leon Russell!’ and I temporarily froze for about a nanosecond. He came back afterwards and was so sweet. He was beginning to become famous before me and he had written a song that I was just crazy about.”

That track was ‘A Song for You’. Many esteemed musicians have adored the footloose track, from Donny Hathaway, who covered it himself, to Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys. Taken from his 1970 debut album, the waltzing melody makes his vocals feel all the more heartfelt, cheapening more seamless arrangements by virtue of the fact that their neatness must surely mean they’re culling some rugged sentiment. Russell isn’t prepared to do that, and he explains as much with the sublime lyric: “Listen to the melody, because my loves in there, honey.”

Elton explained: “I wanted to make an album with him because he’d been forgotten, and I wanted to put his name back in the spotlight; I wanted him to be a member of the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame and Songwriters Hall Of Fame. I wanted him to get his recognition back, and he did. There is plenty of songs that I wish have written, but this song is up there.”

Penned for the vocalist Rita Coolidge, the song certainly carries Elton’s knack for nakedly presenting a powerfully vulnerable sentiment, and the number of songwriters who stand in awe of its subtle complexity and meta-twists is a sign that it also ties up the virtuosic side of Elton’s arsenal too. Alas, he’s far from alone in wishing he had written it.