Chords for Top Ten Duets - 4 Elton John & Kiki Dee

At number four in our [Ab] chart, two very different characters and one classic song.
Absolutely.
One is a magnificently bejewelled diva, a veritable dame of rock.
And the other is a woman.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[F] That _ _ _ _ [Dm] _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ _ [Bm] _ [C] _ [F] _
was just one song which [Bb] I sang half of [F] _
24 years ago.
_ _ _ If you asked me to name another Kiki D song, I'd do Staring at the Ceiling.
I might as well stare at the ceiling now because I have [Gm] absolutely no idea what else she did. _ _
Well, quite a bit actually.
In 1963, Bradford-born teenage songbird Pauline Edwards was hauled down
[G] to smoke, given a new name, new hairdo and a record contract. _
Spectacular underachievement
followed.
But she was attracting the right kind of attention.
My manager rang me one day and said,
[A] Tamla Motan have rang me, want you to go over and do an album.
I said, ha ha ha ha.
I think she was the very first white artist,
certainly the very first English artist definitely that ever was signed to Motana.
Well, I kind of thought, this is it.
I'm going to, this is going to be it now.
I'm
going to do [F] an album for [D] Motana.
I'm going to become a big star, you know.
And I got back to England and it really kind of didn't happen.
But on to the next.
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
[Bm] _ _ _ Elton [Am] John's manager, John [Ab] Reed, said, I'm managing an artist [Db] called Elton John [Dm] and
we're going to start a record label. _
_ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _
_ Meeting Elton [Eb] and working at Rocket Records [Ebm] was so different from the Motown thing,
[Bb] from the whole experience of going to [C] Detroit and feeling like an outsider.
[Gm] I was working with people my own [Cm] age.
I felt really like I'd come [F] home.
_ _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ [Cm] _ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ [Eb] So _ _ [Bb] _
finally, some child success, [Cm] but still no elusive [F] UK number [Bb] one for Kiki or her new label
boss.
But the Rocket Man had a plan.
They were going to do it [Bb] together. _ _
[F] Have a number one.
_ _ [Bb] _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _
[F] _ _ When [Bb] _ _ he did the video where [E] they're both together [Ab] in the studio with a microphone,
it makes me laugh because the fact was they were thousands of miles [F] apart when the duet
was actually done, which is not really the way to do a duet.
But that's the way that one was done.
[Bb] Elton put the song down in [F] the studio in America.
He also did [Gm] my vocal in a [Abm] high pitched voice,
which was quite funny.
So I knew which lines to sing.
Well, he actually sang about three quarters of the song and then sang about four lines for Kiki.
And I said, hang on a minute, is this supposed to be a duet or a guest appearance?
He said,
no, no, it's a duet.
I said, well, you've got to give her at least 50% of the song.
He's [F] like,
[C] The tapes [Bb] were sent to London and then I did my vocal _ and [C] [Am] that was it. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Cm] _ _ _ _
When I played the whole [Bb] thing back, she said, [Fm] well, what do you think of it?
And I said,
[C]
it's obviously going to be a hit.
[Am] She's going, are you sure?
I never took it that seriously.
[Gm] You know, it's a bouncy little song.
I thought,
well, this is quite nice.
[Bb] This will be fun.
[F] _ _ _ [C] _ [G] _
Maybe [Ab] she would like to have had [Bb] a number one hit with something that was a bit more weighty.
I actually think Don't Go Breaking My Heart is a great song [C] and possibly [G] one of Elton John's
best [Gbm] songs.
I mean, I know I'll probably be [Bb] lynched for having said that.
[C] _ _ [F] _ _ _
[C] _ [Dm] _ _ [F] _ [Bb] _ _ _ [C] _
[F] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ Well, [F] frothy maybe, but it still became a transatlantic chart topping monster,
while the bleak symbolism [Bb] of the video disturbed audiences [F] the world over.
_ [Bb] Don't think he'd ever performed _ Standing Up [F] before.
So he looked a little bit [Bb] awkward.
And those [F] dungarees, [A] I mean, I should have kept them, [Bb] shouldn't I?
I mean,
[G] _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ [C] _
I [Bb] don't know if you remember at one point he bends over and kisses me [Am] sort of there.
I had a little heart brooch on.
Just a little kiss.
It [Cm] was very,
something very innocent about it.
_ _ _ [Bb] I'd like [F] to think that the [C] public
can [G] sense that Elton and I [F] care about each other and that it's not [B] something you manufacture.
[Db] _ So, you know, when you do a direct together, you don't have to be madly in love with each other.
_ _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ 17 [Gm] years on, the platonic [Db] partners reunited for a pop at [Ab] the Christmas Number One.
They almost made it.
_ _ [Gb] _
_ _ [Db] _ In a year when Elton was getting it on with pretty [Gb] much everyone in pop,
[Gm] this classic show tune [Db] reminded us of his most memorable [Ab] partnership.
Since then, their most memorable [Gb] collaboration [G] keeps on rearing its sometimes hideous head. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Unfortunately, _ _ _
[A] _ he can't seem to control his hand gestures.
[G] _ _ _ [A] _ [D] _ You say that [Bm] to all the blokes.
_ [Gbm] _ [G] Amazing that after all this, the [D] original cast is still willing to risk the occasional
rescue mission.
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ [Bm] _ _ But [G] for Kiki, who's [Em] still recording, [Bm] duet immortality remains a double-edged sword.
[A] Friend [Bm] of mine once said to me, if you have a number one record,
you can always [G] use it as a launch pad for the rest of your life.
It's a number one record that's still out there in the world and still being [A] played.
[D] _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] Yeah, [D] _
_ _ I'm just going to stick with the [A] music I'm doing now and enjoy it as much as [G] I can
_ and kind of live with this strange albatross, as they [Ab] say,
you know, the strange