The Songs That Make Up ‘Hold Me Closer’

One year ago, it was Dua Lipa joining Elton on ‘Cold Heart’, a song that continues, at 50-plus-weeks-and-counting on both the US and UK charts, to be one of the most popular in Elton’s career. This year, the “king of collaborations” has doubled down by asking the Princess of Pop, Britney Spears, to sing with him on selections from his hit songs, ‘Tiny Dancer’ and ‘The One’. (Eagle-eared fans of Elton will also note a brief sample from his summer-of-1976 smash ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’.)

By John F. Higgins

Produced by Andrew Watt, who helmed six of the songs on last year’s The Lockdown Sessions, the dance track is a blend of original tracks with freshly recorded vocals and instrumentation, including new vocals and piano from Elton.

In honor of the occasion, we take an in-depth look at the three songs that make up Hold Me Closer.

Tiny Dancer was written in late 1970 and recorded at Trident Studios, London, on August 9, 1971. It led off Elton’s fourth studio album, Madman Across The Water, and was the LP’s second single in the US (it wasn’t released as a single in the UK until 2015).

Placing on five Billboard song charts, it peaked at No. 41 on the Hot 100 and No. 35 on Adult Contemporary. The ballad later found a new audience when it was featured in Cameron Crowe’s film Almost Famous and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2020. Just like the fictional band Stillwater in the 2000 movie, fans attending Elton’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour raise their voices in song when Tiny Dancer is played.

Hold Me Closer opens with Caleb Quaye’s electric guitar part from the Tiny Dancer chorus, slowed down and treated by Watt. Other elements from the original recording, including backing vocals, are also incorporated into the mix.

The One was recorded in Paris in 1991 and was the debut single off Elton’s 1992 album of the same name, making it the first written and released after he had overcome years of addictions. It is thus credited with rejuvenating his career in 1992, a dynamic that seems to be in play for Britney Spears; Hold Me Closer is the singer’s first new music since 2016.

Elton’s 1992 single reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped their Adult Contemporary chart. It peaked at No. 10 in the UK. The One is the seventh of nine Elton LPs producer Chris Thomas has worked on to date. Thomas, who has also produced landmark albums by The Pretenders, the Sex Pistols, Procol Harum, Pulp, INXS, and others, first worked with Elton in 1969 producing songs for The Bread & Beer Band, a group of studio musicians in which Elton (still Reg Dwight at that time) played.

A monster single during the summer of 1976, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and four and a half months on that chart overall. On the other side of the Atlantic, the duet became Elton’s first No. 1 single in his home country, spending six weeks at the top and a total of 14 weeks on the chart. Elton, uncommonly, came up with the title himself whilst creating the tune at Eastern Sound Studios in Toronto, Canada. In a bit of kismet, Elton’s new contributions to Hold Me Closer were also recorded in Toronto.

There are three uncredited backing vocalists on the original hit single, and they make an appearance on the new track; Cindy (now Cidny) Bullens, Ken Gold, and Jon Joyce, the backing vocalists on Elton’s 1976 tour, recorded their background parts to Don’t Go Breaking My Heart in London after Kiki Dee’s duet vocal had been done. They can be heard, along with Elton and Kiki, on the “Woo-hoo”s in Hold Me Closer.

In the first week following its release, Hold Me Closer is:

• No. 3 in the UK
• No. 1 in Australia
• No. 14 on Billboard Adult Contemporary

The song is Britney’s third appearance on the AC chart while extending Elton’s record for the most appearances on that tally to 76. Cold Heart remains at No. 1 after 54 weeks on the chart.