Before he came out, Elton John courted controversy with this song about a schoolboy crush

Happy Birthday, Elton!

Today marks the 77th birthday of Sir Elton John, the knighted (and EGOT earning!) rock legend who has been one our most prominent, prolific, and powerful LGBTQ+ icons for decades.

In fact, John is such an integral part of our culture, it’s easy to forget that he wasn’t always “out.” John made a name for himself with a larger-than-life, flamboyant stage presence, and rocketed to fame at a time when some of the biggest stars in music (his contemporaries include David Bowie and Queen) were pushing up against traditional gender norms—at least aesthetically.

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However, it wasn’t until a 1976 interview with Rolling Stone that John called himself bisexual, and later in the ’90s when he began more publicly identifying as gay.

But, roughly a decade into his career, John released his first song performed form the perspective of a gay man—one fittingly titled “Elton’s Song”—which he now considers his first “recorded as a homosexual song.” (Though, notably, John’s first song about a queer character was actually the tragic lesbian tale “All The Girls Love Alice” from 1973.)

Initially recorded in 1979 and released as part of John’s 1981 album The Fox, “Elton’s Song” was co-written by Tom Robinson, the out queer musician and activist known for the 1978 hit “Glad To Be Gay.” It tells the story of a young person’s unrequited love for a classmate, observing them around school all while daydreaming about their “grace and style” and “razor blade smile.”

Though it begins as a sweet ode to an innocent crush, the number gradually reveals the deep loneliness of its narrator, ending on a final line both romantic and dark: “But I would give my life / For a single night beside you.”

Notably, the lyrics keep things just vague enough so as to not explicitly mention the gender or sexuality of either character, but it’s not difficult to read between the lines here and see that this infatuation, this story, is inextricably queer. Surely the narrator’s feelings of shame—of holding onto a crush despite others telling them it’s wrong—are familiar to many of us.

But where the song itself keeps things open to interpretation, the music video makes things very clear. Directed by Russell Mulcahy (who most recently directed Teen Wolf: The Movie), it depicts a young schoolboy pining for someone slightly older, taller, and more athletic. Unsurprisingly, this was pretty controversial for the early ’80s, and the “Elton’s Song” video never actually aired on television.

Related:

Bernie Taupin recalls the time Elton John hit on him & what might’ve happened if they were both gay

He also has a few choice words about Andy Warhol.

Despite the title, “Elton’s Song” isn’t based off a personal account of John’s, though the musician has spoken about its significance for him, conjuring up memories of his own childhood.

“It was very homoerotic,” he told Cameron Crowe in a 2013 Rolling Stone interview. “I could imagine the boy that I wanted to be, on the parallel bars, swinging with his tight little outfit on and his bare feet.”

Decades later, “Elton’s Song” remains one of the musician’s signatures and a true fan favorite. Though he was still grappling with embracing and discussing his sexuality in public, the song and companion video took a radical step forward in giving a voice to explicitly queer feelings, those seldom explored in media at the time.

In many way’s “Elton’s Song” was a song for all of us.

Related:

Bernie Taupin recalls the time Elton John hit on him & what might’ve happened if they were both gay

He also has a few choice words about Andy Warhol.