One of the greatest piano ballads of all time. Released in 1971, the song was early in Elton’s career so it features “crossover” hooks to make it appeal to a wider audience. For example the ‘country music style’ slide guitar that guitarist Davey Johnstone masterfully weaves throughout the song. We suggest this was done to appeal to ‘country’ audiences in America. Not a bad idea and many artists do this when starting out. However, Elton quickly abandoned the country feel in later works once he became a worldwide star. Either way, this is just an incredibly beautiful song. Add it to your first set repertoire.
Backing Track Notes: This is a REAL Track with vocal harmonies added to enhance the performance of the song. For example, the start of the chorus line “hold me closer” is sung in falsetto by Elton. This can be difficult to pull off in a live gig so we’ve added the falsetto parts and done a similar thing with the mix with double tracking. The demo above is the start of the last chorus, which has the band coming in on the chorus parts. It’s not this busy all through the song.
Tiny Dancer
Elton John
Blue-jean baby, L.A. lady
Seamstress for the band
Pretty-eyed, pirate smile
You’ll marry a music man
Ballerina, you must have seen her
Dancing in the sand
And now she’s in me, always with me
Tiny dancer in my hand
Jesus freaks, out in the street
Handing tickets out for God
Turning back, she just laughs
The boulevard is not that bad
Piano man, he makes his stand
In the auditorium
Looking on, she sings the songs
The words she knows, the tune she hums
But oh, how it feels so real
Lying here, with no one near
And only you, and you can hear me
When I say softly, slowly
Hold me closer, tiny dancer
Count the headlights on the highway
Lay me down in sheets of linen
You had a busy day today
Hold me closer, tiny dancer
Count the headlights on the highway
Lay me down in sheets of linen
You had a busy day today
Blue-jean baby, L.A. Lady
Seamstress for the band
Pretty-eyed, pirate smile
You’ll marry a music man
Ballerina, you must have seen her
Dancing in the sand
Now she’s in me, always with me
Tiny dancer in my hand
Oh, how it feels so real
Lying here, with no one near
Only you, and you can hear me
When I say softly, slowly
Hold me closer, tiny dancer
Count the headlights on the highway
Lay me down in sheets of linen
You had a busy day today
Hold me closer, tiny dancer
Count the headlights on the highway
Lay me down in sheets of linen
You had a busy day today
Songwriters: Elton John/ Bernie Taupin
(c) Universal Music Group/ EMI