(Credits: John Lennon)
Mon 14 April 2025 15:45, UK
There was likely a long list of benefits to being a Beatle. Fame and riches, yes. But it was more than that. Seeing things few get to see and meeting people few get to meet, surely one of the ultimate advantages to achieving legendary status was getting a front-row seat to other legends. They could watch masters at work, and they got to work alongside the best of the best for the rest of the Fab Four’s careers and lives. John Lennon truly made the most of that.
There are countless stories of The Beatles boys meeting other musical heroes. They hung out with The Rolling Stones often. McCartney spent time jamming with Jefferson Airplane. The liner notes of songs like ‘All You Need Is Love’ is a veritable who’s-who of the 1960s as that era saw them routinely just open up the studio doors as a space for their friends to hang out.
The connections they made during their time in the band would continue to be vital in their solo efforts. After meeting Bob Dylan as a group in the early ‘60s, Dylan and Harrison became close friends and collaborators after the band broke up. Their producer, George Martin, would continue to be a repeated figure in their lives, as would Ronnie Spector for a few of them. Having had the privilege of basically having access to any musical legend they might want, they only needed to send out an invite, given that no one would turn down a chance to work with a Beatle.
You might think, though, that no one could surprise them. When huge, famous names walked into the room, it meant that everyone was aware of everyone else’s skill and talent. Their reputations preceded them, so nothing could be unexpected.
However, one of Lennon’s favourite collaborations was exactly that. “I knew him, but I’d never seen him play,” Lennon said of one artist who he met almost outside of music first and let the rest come second.
The person in question is Elton John, who he met first simply on the set of a music video. John was going to appear in the video for Lennon’s album Mind Games in 1973, and he was freaking out. “Obviously I was in awe,” John said about the day. Being a few years younger than Lennon, he’s been a disciple of The Beatles, so meeting one in the flesh, despite his own celebrity being on the come-up, was wild.
On Lennon’s side, he’d heard about John but had yet to truly dive deep. Elton John was on the precipice of major, major fame. He’d started his golden run of number ones, and his name was getting bigger and louder. Lennon had heard it, but when he finally paid attention, he was blown away.
A year after meeting in a non-music setting, they met again as two artists. In 1974, the duo collaborated. Lennon needed some piano and some harmonies added to his album Walls and Bridges, and given that the duo had become good friends by then in a purely social way, he finally got to see John in action.
“I was fiddling about one night and Elton John walked in with Tony King of Apple — you know, we’re all good friends — and the next minute Elton said, ‘Say, can I put a bit of piano on that?’ I said, ‘Sure, love it!’ He zapped in,” Lennon recalled of the moment John added his touch to ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’.
“I was amazed at his ability,” he said.
Finally getting to see his friend in the zone, Lennon was blown away by John’s talent. “A fine musician, great piano player. I was really pleasantly surprised at the way he could get in on such a loose track and add to it and keep up with the rhythm changes — obviously, ’cause it doesn’t keep the same rhythm… And then he sang with me,” he said, adding, “We had a great time.”
The track would go on to give Lennon his first and only US number one as a solo artist while he was alive, and John’s golden touch at that time stretched to collaborations, too.
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