ABC/Randy Holmes
ABC/Randy HolmesWith Elton John having quite the moment thanks to the movie Rocketman, his sold-out farewell tour and his best-selling autobiography, it’s no wonder there’s lots of call for Elton memorabilia at auction.
The original handwritten lyrics to “Your Song,” scrawled by Bernie Taupin, sold at Bonhams auction house Monday for just under $237,600. The lyrics were the first and only draft — as fans know, Bernie handed the lyrics to Elton, who wrote the music for the song in about 10 minutes.
If you own a copy of Elton’s 1975 album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Copy, a picture of this very same lyric sheet appears in the insert material.
At the same sale, the original handwritten lyrics to “Bennie & the Jets” sold for just under $87,600, and the lyrics to “Border Song,” with annotations by Elton, went for more than $31,000. That lyric sheet was a rare example of Elton and Bernie actually writing a song together: As fans know, it’s extremely rare for Elton to ever write lyrics.
The lyric sheets were all sold by Maxine Taupin, Bernie’s ex-wife, who inspired many of his songs, including “Tiny Dancer.” She also suggested the titles of the songs “Harmony,” “Love Lies Bleeding” and, most famously, “The Bitch Is Back.”
Recalling the origin of the latter tune’s title, Maxine told The Hollywood Reporter, “When Elton came back from one particular tour, Bernie and I went over to visit him. He was telling us about what went on, how exhausted he was and this happened and this didn’t and just on and on and on.”
“I looked over at Bernie and rolled my eyes and said, ‘Oh, the bitch is back.’ And we all just started laughing hysterically.”
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