With a jaunty, Caribbean-inflected melody, the lyrics to this one often slip by. The song is about a Jamaican prostitute in New York City. The story is vague, but in the chorus, Elton asks, "What you wanting with the white man's world?" and tells her, "Black boy want you in his island world." Seems she is trapped there, unable to leave with the man who wants to take her home. It's a case of Elton John taking the song in a musical direction that belies the lyric delivered to him by Bernie Taupin.
On November 1, 1975, this went to #1 in America, giving Elton his fifth chart-topper there. It knocked off Neil Sedaka's "Bad Blood," a song Elton sang on that was released on his Rocket label.
Those spacey sounds in the instrumental break were done with a Mellotron and an ARP Synthesizer, both played/programmed by James Newton Howard. Other instrumentation on the track: Davey Johnstone - guitars, banjo Caleb Quaye - acoustic guitar Kenny Passarelli - bass Ray Cooper - congas, tambourine, marimba (sounds kind of like steel drums, evoking the island) Roger Pope - drums Kiki Dee, known for duetting with Elton on "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" the following year, was among the backup singers along with Passarelli, Johnstone, Quaye and Ann Orson.
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.