For the most part, only hardcore Elton fans know about this beautiful song. Written and recorded by Kiki Dee, Elton's cover version was released as the B-Side to the single Island Girl. Elton had signed Kiki to his own Rocket Records label and was heavily involved in producing her 1973 album, Loving & Free. Elton played keyboards on 7 of the tracks and Elton's band also appears on numerous tracks. Elton and Bernie even contributed 2 songs to the album. Although it was critically acclaimed, the album didn't sell well. Sugar, written by Kiki, was one of the standout songs from the album.

Frankly speaking, Bernie has rarely provided Elton with the kind of emotional and heart-felt lyrics found in this song. And Elton's interpretation is very sparse, focusing on the melody and wringing every bit of emotion out of the words.

You won't find any traditional Elton playing here. It's simple chords (and sometimes not so simple chords) played on a quarter note pulse - no riffing and none of Elton's standard accompaniment style. Here are the opening bars.

The song doesn't really follow much of a structure per se. It just sort of slowly evolves, ending with the title being sung twice. Since there seem to be 2 distinct sections prior to the brief chorus, I'm calling this as an A-B-C structure. The A section consists of 2 8-bar phrases, roughly following a I-I-IV-ii form. The B section starts at bar 21 and introduces the subdominant EbMaj7 chord. This section is a little more odd since it has a couple of added 2/4 bars in measures 23 and 27. We end up with 14 bars in this section.

(From a notation standpoint, these can be notated as 2/4 or they can be added to the end of the previous measures which would then be shown as 6/4 bars. It's all subjective and I prefer the 2/4 approach.)

The little 4-bar chorus turns around and goes back to the B section.

I've had a couple of folks request this song over the past year. As you know, I also share an interest in Elton's more obscure songs. Thanks to their prompting, I'm very pleased to present this rare treat. Enjoy!