"Someone Saved My Life Tonight" is a song with music by British musician Elton John and lyrics by Bernie Taupin, from John's 1975 album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. It was released as a single on 20 June 1975,[3] the only single released from the album. Like the rest of the album, the song is autobiographical, and addresses an attempted suicide by John.
At 6 minutes and 45 seconds, "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" was twice as long as a typical single, but owing to the highly personal nature of the lyrics, John refused to let it be edited down to a more suitable length for radio airplay. Despite the length, the song peaked on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart at No. 4 and in Canada on the RPMTop Singles chart at No. 2. It would be John's last single for eight years to feature the original Elton John Band of John, Dee Murray, Davey Johnstone, and Nigel Olsson, as John fired Murray and Olsson following the recording of the album.
Background
The song concludes side one of the album's narrative, chronicling the early history of John and lyricist, Bernie Taupin, and their struggles to find their place within the music industry.
Taupin's lyric refers to a time in 1968, before John was popular as a musician, when John was engaged to be married to girlfriend Linda Woodrow. John and Woodrow were sharing a flat with Taupin in Furlong Road in Highbury, London, hence the opening line "When I think of those East End lights." John did not love his girlfriend, and felt trapped by the relationship. Feeling desperate, John contemplated suicide, and even made a half-hearted attempt at asphyxiating himself with a gas oven in his home.[4] He took refuge in his friends, especially Long John Baldry, who convinced John to abandon his plans to marry, in order to salvage and maintain his musical career. His parents arrived the next day, in a van, to take him home.[5] As a sign of respect and gratitude to Baldry, Taupin wrote him into the song as the "someone" in the title, and also as "Sugar Bear".[6][7][8]
According to Taupin, John had turned on the gas oven, but left the windows open, rendering the attempt ineffective.[9]
The lyric "And butterflies are free to fly" is a reference to a famous quote from Dickens' Bleak House: "I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free. Mankind will surely not deny to Harold Skimpole what it concedes to the butterflies." A few years prior to the song's release, the same quotation had inspired the title of the 1972 American comedy-drama film Butterflies Are Free, an adaptation of the 1969 play of the same title by Leonard Gershe.
Recording
In the liner notes to the Deluxe Edition of Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy, writer Paul Gambaccini related a recollection from producer Gus Dudgeon. During the recording of the song's lead vocal, Dudgeon said he was pushing John for more in terms of his delivery of the vocal, not paying attention to the lyric. According to Gambaccini, guitarist Davey Johnstone leaned over and told Dudgeon, "You know he's singing about killing himself." Dudgeon was apparently mortified by the revelation and relented.
Release
At 6:45 this was one of John's longest singles and was slated to be edited to a shorter version for radio airplay. John refused to let MCA Records cut the record down, saying that it was to be released as a whole, and MCA acquiesced.[citation needed]
Reception
When released as the album's only single in 1975, it reached No. 4 on The US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and entered the top 25 on the UK Singles Chart. In the U.S., it was certified Gold on 10 September 1975 by the RIAA. In Canada, the single narrowly missed being his ninth number one, hitting No. 2 on the RPM 100 national Top Singles chart on 30 August.[10]
Cash Box said that "Tschaikovsky would feel proud about Elton's punctuated chords — those high harmonies are perfect for summertime."[11]Record World said that it's "the most ambitious cut" from the album and that the "performance advances the level of elegance that made his 'Your Song' ours."[12] Jason Scott of American Songwriter called it an "emotional ballad".[13]
Comparisons were drawn to the earlier John/Taupin composition "Skyline Pigeon", as both songs contain the metaphor of a creature flying free towards the sky to signify escape from marriage, with the creature in this case being a butterfly.
Live performances
John has played the song live many times from its release until 1986, and again from 1995 to present.[14] Two of the best known recorded performances were during the Central Park concert in September 1980 and his visit in Rio de Janeiro in November 1995 during the final leg of Made in England Tour.
Walter Jackson recorded a version of the song for his 1976 album Feeling Good.
Mariah Carey used an interpolation of the song in a house record she co-wrote with David Morales titled "Fly Away (Butterfly Reprise)" which appears on her album Butterfly.
Sheryl Crow alludes to the lyrics of the song in "Always on Your Side" (a song on her 2005 album Wildflower) with the lyric "If butterflies are free to fly, why do they fly away?"
