Elton John’s “Your Song” is the latest song to join Spotify’s Billions Club for tracks which have been streamed a billion times in total.
“Your Song” is the fourth Elton John song to join Spotify’s exalted club. It joins his most-streamed song, his Dua Lipa and Pnau collaboration “Cold Heart” (which has over 2.2 billion streams to date) and “I’m Still Standing” and “Rocket Man,” both of which have been streamed over 1.2 billion times on Spotify to date.
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“Your Song” occupies a special place in Elton John’s catalog as it provided him with his first international Top 10 hit late in 1970.
Composed by Elton John with lyrics by Bernie Taupin, “Your Song” was first released by American rock band Three Dog Night in March 1970 as an album track on It Ain’t Easy. John was an opening act for the band at the time and allowed them to record it.
However, Three Dog Night’s recording of the song was never a single and John gut his own version of “Your Song” at Trident Studios in London in January 1970. The song first appeared in April 1970 as the first cut on his self-titled second studio album.
Following “Border Song” as the first album single, “Your Song” was released in the U.S. in October 1970 as the B-side to “Take Me to the Pilot”. Both sides received airplay, but “Your Song” was preferred by disc jockeys and replaced “Take Me to the Pilot” as the A-side, eventually rising to No.8 on the Billboard chart. The song also peaked at number 7 on the UK Singles Chart, as well as charting in the top 10 in several other countries.
Now recognized as a classic, “Your Song” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998 and it is listed among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. It has also been covered by numerous artists, including Rod Stewart, Lady Gaga and Ellie Goulding. It was also recorded by Taron Egerton for the 2019 Elton John biopic Rocketman.
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