Sunday Sounds: June 21, 2020, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”

Posted On June 21, 2020

Samantha Colleran, June 2020

Happy birthday, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”! On this day in 1976, the hit collaboration between Elton John and Kiki Dee was released in Britain and the USA. Elton and Kiki were both huge fans on Motown duets and wanted to try and create one of their own, so “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” was born. The song went on to be the second biggest selling record of 1976 in the UK and America. The song has been reworked a number of times; Elton sang the song with RuPaul in 1994 and their version was used in the film Summer Of Sam, he also sang it in 1977 on The Muppet Show with Miss Piggy. Q-Tip and Demi Lovato did a cover for a tribute album created in 2018 called Revamp: Reimagining the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Shawn Mendes and SZA performed it as a Grammy tribute the same year. 

“Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” was written by Elton and long time songwriting partner Bernie Taupin under the pseudonyms Ann Orson and Carte Blanche, respectively. Elton originally recorded a large portion of the song and only left Kiki with a few lines, so he had to go in and re-record it after producer Gus Dudgeon reminded him it was a duet and not a feature. He sang in a high pitched voice so Kiki would know which parts were hers since they recorded in separate locations (Elton in Toronto and Kiki in London). Despite being recorded during the time Elton was working on his album Blue Moves, the song wasn’t featured on an album until Elton released Elton John’s Greatest Hits Volume II, and is included as a bonus track on the reissued versions of Elton’s album Rock Of The Westies. “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” was Elton’s first UK No. 1 single.

This is one of Elton’s most upbeat, fun songs. It was written a bit differently than Elton and Bernie normally wrote their songs together, Elton came up with the title and then asked Bernie to write lyrics to go along with the song. For the anniversary, relive the classic hit and let me know your thoughts in the comments below!