10 Underrated Elton John Songs

Ever since I saw Rocketman earlier this summer, I haven't stopped thinking about the movie. It truly hit my heart like no other film has in years. Even though Elton John's music was the soundtrack of my childhood and teen years (the '70s and '80s, respectively) I'm a little ashamed to admit that there were a lot of songs in his vast catalog that I had never heard before. I've truly enjoyed making up for lost time and discovering so many brilliant compositions that never charted or were minor hits when compared to his mega chart-toppers such as "Your Song", "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", "Bennie and the Jets", "Honky Cat", "I'm Still Standing", and countless others. Well, better late than never.

Rocketman really did rock me to my core—I hope to write a proper review before the movie is released to Blu-Ray and DVD on August 27 (you can download it digitally next week on August 6.) I just had no clue that the cool dude with the splashy duds whose music videos and performances I grew up watching struggled with so much personally. And at the heart of this movie is his enduring relationship with Bernie Taupin, who's been his lyricist for over 50 years. The mutual respect and kindness these two men have had for each other from the get-go is conveyed beautifully in this movie. #FriendshipGoals for sure.

In the meantime, immersing myself in all things Elton has inspired me to come out of blogger hiatus (I haven't updated this site since January!) and list ten of what I believe are his most underrated songs. When pulling these lists together I always try to make them about songs that never charted or ones that didn't chart very high, but should have. And I'm not embarrassed to admit I have a huge crush on the man who used to go by Reginald (Reggie) Kenneth Dwight (I even drew a portrait of him)...besides being absolutely adorable, his personality and sense of humor in so many interviews I've been watching is enchanting! Elton also recently announced his 29th anniversary of sobriety—congratulations, Elton, and thank you for sharing your story and letting us know that it's never impossible to overcome deep-settled insecurities and change your life around.

Here are ten underrated Elton John songs that I adore.

1. Skyline Pigeon (1969)
Originally released on Elton's debut 1969 album Empty Sky, this particular version features Elton playing a harpsichord instead of a piano. If you saw the movie The Favourite, you'll recognize this one from the closing credits.

Elton told Rolling Stone magazine in 2013 that Skyline Pigeon "was the first good song Bernie and I ever wrote." He's the only musician on this track, taking full credit for the vocals and playing harpsichord and an overdubbed organ.

A beautiful and melancholy tune about yearning for freedom, the song was performed by Elton at Ryan White's funeral. He was the Indiana teenager who contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion in the '80s and was mercilessly shunned and teased by his classmates, school officials, and townspeople until his mother moved him and the family to another town.

Elton became very close to Ryan and his mother, even taking him to Disneyland and pushing his wheelchair around himself for the entire day. He later said that Ryan's passing is what inspired him to go to rehab and conquer his addictions.



2. "I Think I'm Going to Kill Myself" (1972) 
Can a song about a teen who wants to commit suicide because he's not getting enough attention be funny? Maybe I just have a dark sense of humor. "I Think I'm Going to Kill Myself", from the Honky Chateau album, is sung by the point of view of a moody teenager who is "getting bored being part of mankind." It's so upbeat it's impossible to resist...to the point that it did actually stop one person who commented on the video on YouTube that hearing it put them in a good mood and they forgot about killing themselves (they also add, "I am now the world's newest Elton John fan.")

The irony here is that Elton tried to kill himself at least twice (sticking his head in an oven because he was engaged to a girl to cover up his sexuality...an incident that inspired "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" and his swimming pool incident which is depicted in the movie. Elton says that second episode was more a cry for help, as he knew the pills he took weren't really going to kill him. Thank goodness both attempts failed.)

And the thing is, "I Think I'm Going to Kill Myself" is all the more relevant today, with our society's rampant social media and internet addiction.

3. "All the Young Girls Love Alice" (1973)
There's two theories about what inspired this track from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. One is that it has to do with Alice Cooper and his legion of young female groupies in the '70s. But the more likely explanation is that it's about a lesbian sharing her cookies with other women. Either way, "All the Young Girls Love Alice" is a rocker in the same vein as "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting"—and pretty heavy subject matter to cover musically in the early '70s.

4. "Part-Time Love" (1978)
This track from A Single Man climbed only to number 21 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100 (and to number 13 on the Cash Box Top 100) and should have been much higher. Just a catchy tune about people having other partners on the side...too controversial, it seems, for the Soviets at the time—they banned the song when the album was released there. The following year, Elton would do a historic tour in the U.S.S.R. Gary Osbourne wrote the lyrics for this one.

5. "Victim of Love" (1979)
You knew that Elton John released a disco album, didn't you? You didn't? Well, Victim of Love—which is Elton's shortest album—is widely considered by many fans to also be one of his worst. It was released just as disco's spinning ball was slowing down (but so what? That didn't stop Queen from releasing their funk/dance/New Wave album Hot Space a few years later in 1982.) It received no promotion and is one of his worst selling records. But does that mean it's truly awful?

This album and the title track gets a lot of hate from many Elton fans. I personally think it's a very enjoyable record, even though Bernie had nothing to do with it (and neither did Elton other than providing his vocals.) Elton defended the project in one of the many books written about him, saying he simply wanted to make a record that people could dance to the whole way through. And the song "Victim of Love" is getting a lot of attention from newer fans because a snippet of it was used in the movie.

Elton has never played any of the tracks from Victim of Love live, and he did very little to promote it, but I still think the title song is contagious—I can easily listen to it over and over again, and it seems he even changed his voice to fit the tone.

6. "Blue Eyes" (1982) 
OK, this gorgeous ballad from the Jump Up LP was a hit in the U.S. and UK, but oddly enough, I never heard it before in my life until recently. Don't ask me how I missed this gem, which was dedicated to Elton's friend Elizabeth Taylor (whose eyes are really violet.) I just ignore that factoid...as I have blue eyes, I like to pretend it's for me. Ha ha!

Although the official video that was filmed on the Australian coast is beautiful, I'm more partial to the second video below which was filmed when Elton performed the song on Top of the Pops. Look at how long and lush his eyelashes are...and those sexy looks he keeps giving to the camera. His voice was as smooth as dark chocolate here. Oh, Elton...

7. "Who Wears These Shoes" (1984)
This track from Breaking Hearts reached number 16 in the States, not fairing quite as well as "Sad Songs (Say So Much)". The song is just contagious to me, and the extended version I'm including below is just as good if not better!

The music video gets a lot of criticism for some reason...this was the '80s, kiddos. And we loved it!

8. "Act of War" (1985)
This song from Elton's 1985 album Ice on Fire—which gave us the hit "Nikita"—was ignored in the U.S. (and only reached number 32 on the UK charts) despite being a rock-filled duet with Millie Jackson. Tina Turner was originally approached to partner with Elton but for reasons unknown, turned it down. That's OK, because Jackson certainly has the powerful singing chops to pull this one off, as she and Elton argue back and forth using Taupin's battle-inspired lyrics as the metaphor for a rocky relationship.

Don't forget the '80s was towards the end of the Cold War, when nuclear threat was still seen as a possibility by the Russians. I love everything about the music video for the song—including, of course, Elton's hat and jacket—although it's disconcerting to me that President Ronald Reagan wanted to "get them" (Elton and Millie) in 60 seconds.

9. "Wrap Her Up" (1986)
Another overlooked track from the same album, "Wrap Her Up" features George Michael singing falsetto throughout most of the song, so much so he later told Smash Hits magazine that he sounded like "I had my willy in a garotte."

Most of the female viewers who comment on this video are all over the fact that George Michael is briefly in it, which seems a little unfair to Elton. I'm not a fan of Elton's mullet in this one (proof that everyone in the '80s had one at one point) but I do like how they made it look like he was inserted into vintage film and press clips featuring notable female Hollywood legends.



10. "Original Sin" (2001)
A young Mandy Moore plays out my fantasy in the music video for "Original Sin", a lovely song from Elton's Songs From the West Coast album as Glinda the Good Witch transports her to a 1970s' Elton concert where she's welcomes by celebrities such as Cher, Sonny Bono, Liza Minelli, and Bette Midler.

The only kind of weird thing to get past is that Elton is playing her father in the video (albeit he's supposed to be an American married to Elizabeth Taylor) so essentially it's like she has a crush on her dad.

Of course we're talking about Elton here which means there are dozens more songs that could be added to this list, but these are just my personal top ten underrated compositions. Which ones by the one and only Rocketman would you add?

The Curious Case of Freddie Mercury's Teeth

Do a search on Freddie Mercury, and one of the first auto-fill suggestions that Google will give you is "freddie mercury teeth." It seems Freddie's famous overbite was just as legendary as the man himself, and the story that's been told countless times about his mouth is that it contained four extra teeth.

Many people claim all four of them were on the top jaw and that these teeth were responsible for pushing out his front ones into a prominent overbite. According to Queen folklore, Freddie didn't want to have the extra teeth removed or try to have the overbite fixed because he was worried doing so could possibly change the sound and range of his voice.

But, after diving deeper into this story as well as viewing numerous photos and videos showing Freddie's teeth, I'm not so sure that four extra ones actually existed. Like so many other facets of Freddie's personal life, it's hard to know what is and isn't true.

So, if you can bear with an unusual post from a rabid Queen fan, here's what we do (and don't know) about Freddie Mercury's teeth.

Freddie's Complicated Relationship With His Teeth

First, let me say that I personally don't see anything "wrong" or unattractive about Freddie Mercury's teeth. For starters, I have a bit of an overbite myself. My two front teeth are a little on the large side and I have slight spaces between some of my front teeth. Before I became a huge fan of his, sometimes I didn't like the way my teeth looked, and I even contemplated getting Invisalign at some point to correct the slight gaps.

Then I became a Queen fan and realized if Freddie was comfortable smiling and opening his mouth wide while singing, I didn't have anything to feel self conscious about.

And therein lies a contradiction about how Freddie felt about his smile and what he showed us on the stage. Freddie Mercury seemed to have had a complicated relationship with his teeth. According to Rami Malek, who played him in Bohemian Rhapsody, Freddie was cruelly called "Bucky" by schoolmates because of his teeth.

Sometimes he would bring his upper lip down to try to cover them and during several interviews he puts his hand up to his mouth to try to hide his teeth when something makes him laugh hard.

via GIPHY


Numerous people who were close to Freddie have said that he was really self conscious about the overbite. But on stage and in music videos, he had no qualms about opening his mouth wide and even throwing his head back to unleash that astounding voice that sounded like it was summoned directly from the gods.

via GIPHY

BUT...we do know that Freddie said many times that his stage persona and the real him were not the same person. He was very confident and extroverted while performing while sometimes a little shy away from the spotlight. Nonetheless, the fabulous teeth were always on full display when he was singing.

And, there are plenty of photos of him online smiling and you can't really tell from a majority of these pictures that there was something different about his teeth. The overbite really isn't all that noticeable except in a handful of them, and it's not necessarily an overbite I consider unattractive (I've seen much worse.) In fact, I've only seen maybe three or four photos showing him smiling in such a way that it makes his front teeth look especially prominent and two of them are from his childhood and teen years. It's also as if his front teeth were oversized but then he grew into them as he matured into adulthood.

The infamous mustache, in my opinion, also worked extremely well for him and helped "hide" the overbite.

Two "Extra" Bottom Teeth?

In the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, Freddie reveals to Roger Taylor and Brian May shortly upon meeting them that he has four extra incisors. "More space in my mouth means more range," he tells them.

Only we don't know if he really did have four extra incisors. One thing I did spot from watching music videos is he had two noticeable teeth on the bottom that are out of place. They're right in front of the row of bottom teeth. Below is a screenshot for Queen's "Headlong" video where you can really see them.

At first I thought, "Cool! This does seem to confirm the extra teeth story." (And they make him look like a sexy vampire.) Unfortunately, those two teeth may not be extra ones but simply two misplaced ones that didn't have room to go where they were supposed to go. When I posted the screenshot to Quora at least one dental hygienist and another person who may have been a dentist said they were misplaced teeth due to crowding. The clue is that he has a bicuspid right next to the four bottom middle teeth.

Further complicating the extra teeth theory is a fan on a Queen Facebook group page I belong to said they read that Freddie had all four of his wisdom teeth (I didn't ask them where they read it, but perhaps it's in a biography.) His mouth was large enough and the wisdom teeth came in straight so he didn't have to have them removed (fun fact! This is another teeth trait I have in common with my favorite performer.)

So, while wisdom teeth aren't considered "extra" teeth (although many adults need to have theirs extracted) it's possible this factoid got twisted into the "four extra teeth" story that circulates about Freddie to this day.

And it's also still possible that Freddie did have extra teeth in the back on top in addition to the two wisdom teeth up there. Photos and videos I've seen so far don't show anything "extra" on top but we're not seeing all of the way back in his mouth, so who knows.

Having extra teeth is a real dental condition, by the way. It's known as hyperdontia and the extra teeth are called supernumerary ones. As it can be a genetic condition, some sources have speculated that Freddie inherited it from his mother's side of the family (if he did indeed have it.)

Freddie's Fear of the Dentist

So, you would think that if you're the biggest rock star on the planet and you're VERY concerned about wanting to keep all of your teeth to maintain your voice, that you would be going to the very best dentist in London every six months for a cleaning and check-up, right?

Not when it came to Freddie Mercury. 

Something that I recently learned about Freddie that really surprised me is that he had a dental phobia. I suspect a lot of it had to do with the braces he wore as a kid on his teeth that were described as "painful" by at least one biography on him.

It could also be he was worried a dentist would try to start to fix his overbite while he was sedated having other work done. People who are afraid of going to the dentist may also don't like the loss of control they feel while they're held sort of captive in the dentist's chair.

Whatever the reason, poor Freddie, like so many of us, was not a fan of dentists. He even says so in this scanned Q&A page I found online that came from 16 magazine (check out his answer to what his greatest fear is.) Never mind that local anesthetic and laughing gas were readily available in the '70s and '80s.

And...uh-oh; look at what he answered for "favorite foods." That's not a good idea, Fred! 

Roger Taylor (who, ironically, was about to study dentistry when Queen was formed) also says in a documentary that he believes it was fear that kept Freddie from looking into fixing his overbite.

Despite all this (and a heavy smoking habit starting in the early '80s...!!!) the man had what was absolutely pristine (and white!) looking teeth. There's no visible cavities or even any dental work in any video of him singing or photos showing his mouth open wide. No doubt his at-home oral care was exemplary.

***UPDATE: As a commenter on this post noted, Freddie did get some silver fillings on a few upper teeth done at some point and since she left that comment, I have seen one photo of him singing that shows a small one.

Also, Freddie's partner Jim Hutton wrote in his memoir Mercury and Me that Freddie did visit a dentist once a year despite his loathing of them and would "be in both agony and ecstasy" while having his teeth cleaned by the hygienist. ("She really gets at 'em!" he would declare when leaving the dental office.)

For some reason, I feel better knowing he did eventually visit a dentist for regular check-ups and had his cavities taken care of. 

Jim also says in the book that Freddie was born with a few extra teeth on top which were responsible for the overbite. He added that the reason he never got his teeth fixed is because he simply wasn't vain enough to be bothered. He knew they were his trademark.***

The following story is why, even with the best of dental hygiene, we still need to see a dentist regularly to make sure everything is OK...

A Toothache Catapults the Sex Pistols' Career

Freddie's refusal to see a dentist regularly for check-ups (at least earlier in his career) caught up with him not long after the success of Queen's career changing masterpiece, "Bohemian Rhapsody." On December 1, 1976 the band was due to appear on Tonight With Bill Grundy (a London daytime talk show.)

Poor Freddie, however, had developed a toothache and had to make an emergency dental visit—the first time in 15 years he sat in a dentist's chair, according to several music websites that have talked about this story. Queen canceled on short notice and EMI, who also represented the Sex Pistols, sent them as a replacement.

What followed that day is worthy of its own blog post, but the profanity-laced interview, which wasn't helped by a drunken Grundy egging band members on, soon cost the TV host his career. The Sex Pistols, on the other hand, gained notoriety from the controversial exchange.

My fellow Queen fans probably know the story of how Sid Vicious later instigated Freddie by asking him if he had succeeded in "bringing ballet to the masses yet" during a confrontation in the recording studio one day between the two bands. Freddie called him Simon Ferocious and asked him what he was going to do about it before grabbing him by the lapels, and shoving him out the door. (Vicious should have been more grateful for Freddie's bad tooth and twist of fate.)

Was the hot tooth pulled or did Freddie receive a root canal? I'm guessing it was the latter...because in photos from the '80s, he doesn't appear to be missing any teeth.

The Whole Tooth and Nothing But the Tooth

So, did Freddie Mercury really have four extra teeth? I think the bottom line is we really don't know for sure.

Only his dentist would be able to confirm anything for us and we don't know who that was and if they're still alive. It doesn't appear that Freddie had extra teeth from numerous photos and videos, but a dentist would have seen his entire mouth. Unfortunately, Freddie is not here to tell us the truth, either.

Despite numerous people saying in documentaries that he did have extra teeth, there isn't an interview I've come across yet with Freddie either on film or audio confirming it for sure. So far the only quote I found regarding him speaking about his teeth is that he planned on having the overbite fixed when he had the time and..."other than that, I'm perfect."

What we do know is that he was an exceptionally attractive man and his teeth totally add to his uniqueness and hotness.

Would having the overbite fixed have really altered his signing voice? Many doctors and dentists have speculated no. In fact, this voice teacher goes into great detail to explain the body's anatomy that forms our voice and believes had Freddie got his teeth fixed, it would have had little to no impact on his singing voice. Whatever phobia Freddie had about having his overbite corrected was apparently in his mind.

For now the truth about Freddie's four extra teeth remains a mystery.