Although it has words - "Life... Isn't ever-y-thing" - this Elton John composition can rightly be classed as an instrumental. Guy Burchett was a messenger for Elton's label, Rocket Records. According to reviewer Claude Bernadin, Elton wrote and recorded this piece on the afternoon of Sunday, August 18, 1978. He had felt it was a song about death, and only learned the next day that Guy had been killed that very afternoon in a motorcycle accident.
The single was released November 28, 1978. Backed by "Love Sick," it was Elton's first UK top 5 hit for six years. In America, however, it was Elton's first single since "Step Into Christmas" not to chart. Elton's label, MCA Records, didn't do much promotion for the track, since getting instrumentals played on US radio was a steep climb. This tweaked off Elton, since it was a very important song for him, and he wanted to get an instrumental on the US charts. He says it was one of the reasons he left MCA, which he later realized was a mistake.
The album version runs to a lengthy 6 minutes 53 seconds, although there have been various edits including a CD single released in 2000, running to 3 minutes 52 seconds. This is the Sunstorm Radio Edit by Hurley and Todd; another version, the Sunstorm Mike Koglin Remix, also by Hurley and Todd, was likewise put out in 2000, and runs to 8 minutes 12 seconds.
See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.
Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.