We’re starting off the new year with another theme week on the Wiki Corner! Come January, I always like to take a look back at last year, so this week we’re doing a theme week on Things We Learned in 2022!
In 2022, we learned that Elton John’s hit “Your Song” is the best classic rock song to fall asleep to! A British sleep guide website called Mornings did a study to determine which popular songs most closely matched the characteristics of famous lullabies. They used scientific metrics like tempo and scale to analyze the songs. Of the 500 rock songs they analyzed, “Your Song” came out on top.
The song was one of first collaborations of Elton John and Bernie Taupin. It was first recorded and released by 3 Dog Night in March of 1970. Elton John was an opening act for the band and let them record it. However, the band never released it as a single. Elton John was then an upcoming artist, so they wanted him to release it, which he did in the fall of 1970. It was originally a B Side, but it eventually made it to number 8 on the Billboard chart, becoming Elton John’s first international top 10 single.
Elton John has played it at almost every live performance, and the song has been covered by numerous artists. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and is listed among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”. Learn more here.