Elton John – Rocket Man

About The Song

“Rocket Man” is a song by English musician Elton John, released as a single from his fifth studio album, Honky Château, on April 14, 1972, through DJM Records in the UK and Uni Records in the US, with “Suzie (Dramas)” as the B-side. Written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, it was produced by Gus Dudgeon. Recording took place in January 1972 at Château d’Hérouville in France, with engineering by Ken Scott. The song was released ahead of the album, which dropped on May 19, 1972, and became John’s first US Top 10 album, peaking at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for five weeks.

The single achieved significant chart success. It debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 29, 1972, peaking at No. 6 on July 1, 1972, and charting for 15 weeks. It ranked No. 40 on Billboard’s 1972 year-end Hot 100. In the UK, it reached No. 2 on the Singles Chart, held off the top spot by Don McLean’s “Vincent,” and charted for nine weeks. Internationally, it hit No. 8 in Canada (RPM Top Singles), No. 11 in Ireland (IRMA), No. 5 in New Zealand (RMNZ), and No. 39 in the Netherlands (Single Top 100). Certifications include 3× Platinum in the US (3,000,000 units), Platinum in the UK (600,000 units), and Gold in Denmark (45,000 units). The song ranks No. 149 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2021) and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2018.

The song’s origins trace to Bernie Taupin’s inspiration from Ray Bradbury’s 1951 short story “The Rocket Man” in The Illustrated Man, as Taupin confirmed in a 2016 Rolling Stone interview. The concept was further shaped by Taupin’s 1971 drive through rural England, where he saw a shooting star, sparking the idea of an astronaut detached from Earth, per a 2020 American Songwriter article. Tom Rapp’s 1970 song “Rocket Man” by Pearls Before Swine also influenced Taupin, though he adapted the theme to focus on a futuristic astronaut’s mundane struggles. John composed the melody in one day at Château d’Hérouville, drawing from his piano work, as noted by Gus Dudgeon in the 2007 documentary Classic Albums: Elton John.

Production details include the use of a Fender Rhodes electric piano for the song’s dreamy intro, played by John, with Davey Johnstone on acoustic guitar, Dee Murray on bass, Nigel Olsson on drums, and David Hentschel on ARP synthesizer for the spacey effects. Ken Scott used a 24-track tape machine, capturing John’s vocals in two takes with a Neumann U87 microphone, as detailed in a 2014 Sound on Sound interview. The backing vocals, featuring the band, were recorded in a single session. A 1972 live performance on BBC’s Top of the Pops featured John in a silver jumpsuit. The song was covered by Kate Bush in 1991 for the Two Rooms tribute album and by Taron Egerton for the 2019 film Rocketman. It was used in K-PAX (2001) and NASA’s Apollo 11 mission tributes. In 2017, John performed it aboard the International Space Station via video link, per NME.

Video

Lyric

She packed my bags last night pre-flight
Zero hour, nine a.m.
And I’m gonna be high as a kite by then
I miss the earth so much, I miss my wife
It’s lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight

And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time
‘Til touchdown brings me ’round again to find
I’m not the man they think I am at home
Oh, no, no, no, I’m a rocket man
Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone

And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time
‘Til touchdown brings me ’round again to find
I’m not the man they think I am at home
Oh, no, no, no, I’m a rocket man
Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone

Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact, it’s cold as hell
And there’s no one there to raise them if you did
And all this science I don’t understand
It’s just my job five days a week
A rocket man, a rocket man

And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time
‘Til touchdown brings me ’round again to find
I’m not the man they think I am at home
Oh, no, no, no, I’m a rocket man
Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone

And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time
‘Til touchdown brings me ’round again to find
I’m not the man they think I am at home
Oh, no, no, no, I’m a rocket man
Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone

And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time
And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time