Songoftheday 7/18/12 - when the morning comes, I'll be far away, and I'll say..

Elton John - "Blue Eyes"

from the album Jump Up! (1982)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12 (three weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 10

Today's song of the day is by rock legend Elton John, and before I start anything, please, Elton, just shut your damn mouth. Besides pouring his heart out to Matt Lauer this week to shill his autobiography, he gave another interview to USA Today in which he gabs about his friendship to right-wing windbag Rush Limbaugh.

John's hope of eroding stigmas has led him into some deeply unlikely alliances. After he agreed to perform at Limbaugh's wedding in 2010, the two men bonded over music and formed a friendship, despite Limbaugh's conservative views.

"He sends me the loveliest e-mails," John says. "What I get from Rush privately and what I get from Rush publicly are two different things. I'm just trying to break him down."

 Jesus Christ, Elton, shut the fuck up. Let's face it, right now in your life you're just an A-list name who like starfucking other A-list names, and you all can poo poo the little people at your fancy parties. Of course he doesn't mean it, because he tolerates you so you can do shit like sing at his fucking fourth wedding  Which is actively is promoting people set on prohibiting non-famous people unlike you from ever doing even once. And when you say he'll "come around", is it like the GOProud kind that can match their racism and classism note by note? It's really a disservice to those fighting for our rights to come off as some Marie Antoinette and wait for implicitly devious hypocritical fucks like Limbaugh to change their reptilian mind. But I know you have the outfit for it.

Whew.

Now on to the song...(really, I planned this song weeks in advance)..

"Blue Eyes" was the second single from his 80s comeback album Jump Up! and the followup to the Lennon-eulogizing "Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)". The album also was a transition period after Elton's estrangement from lyricist Bernie Taupin was coming to a close. Hence, Jump Up! was half Taupin lyrics and half by Gary Osborne, who collaborated with Elton during his rocky late 70s-early 80s work (there also was a track with Tim Rice, who later would help Elton with The Lion King). And while "Empty Garden" was typical Taupin with overblown emotion and dramatic flair, Osborne's "Blue Eyes" was a study in mannered soft-rock balladry. It's a beautiful, understated song, and emphasizes Elton's deeper register...

Unsurprisingly, the song topped the adult-contemporary (soft-rock) charts, even though missing the top-10 in the States (as "Empty Garden" did). However, the single did return Elton to the top ten in Britain for the first time since 1978's "Song For Guy".

It would be the last pop single from the album, though "Ball And Chain" would make the rock radio top-10 in 1982 as well. Elton's fortunes would only grow from here, though, with the next year's release of Too Low For Zero, with one of his signature 80's songs, "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues".

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Czech remake artists Tezkej Pokondr did their take on the song as "Blivajz" in 2003..

Up tomorrow: an Osborne that didn't have their own reality show.