Elton is the "Bitch." One day when he was in a foul mood, complaining about anything and everything, Bernie Taupin's wife, Maxine, saw him and said "Uh-Oh, the bitch is back." Bernie Taupin, who was Elton's lyricist, thought it was a great phrase. He wrote lyrics around it and Elton put it to music.
This was the first hit song with the word "bitch" in the title, which was rather risqué in 1974. Many radio stations refused to play it when it was released, but when it became a hit, most relented and added it to their playlists. A few stations tried editing out the word "bitch," but it appears 42 times in the song and the censured versions sounded ludicrous. The Rolling Stones did release a song called "Bitch" on their 1971 album Sticky Fingers, but didn't issue it as a single. Rod Stewart had a minor hit in 1979 with "Ain't Love A Bitch," but the '80s were mostly bitch-free. In the '90s though, the word showed up in a number of song titles, most notably "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks. Hip-hop acts used it liberally, with Insane Clown Posse, Too Short and Missy Elliott all charting with songs with "bitch" in the title.
Elton is fully aware of his temperament and embraced this song, calling it "kind of my theme song." In the 2019 film Rocketman, which is based on his life, "The Bitch Is Back" is the first song, sung by Taron Egerton as Elton.
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