Day 22 - / Empty Garden Hey Hey Johnny (Elton John)

I can’t believe I have never had a song by Sir Elton on this countdown before now. That said, considering his brilliant, endless catalog spanning 5 decades, I tried my best to narrow it down to just one and could not. That would have been an impossible task. Even just narrowing to two was tough, but here they are. First up is a song from the early part of Sir Elton’s career, when his music was less pop and more story-telling. But I just happen to love Harmony because, surprise-surprise, my big sister Rosemarie loved it, and therefore it reminds me of her face when she was the most beautiful girl in the world, back when the days were never-ending and life was simple. It’s hard to express the way I felt about her back then; she was just as magnificent as any of those celebrities I admired, but I didn’t have to share her with the world. She was mine and I was hers. I hear Harmony and I am instantly eight years old and my sister still lives in our house; she hasn’t gotten married yet so I still get to play her records and go on walks in the park with her. I love the way this song will always make me feel, connected to the most special person to have ever affected my life. Next is a heartbreaking ballad sung about Elton’s dear friend John Lennon who, not long before the song was written, was murdered outside his home in the presence of his wife. Everyone alive in the seventies and eighties knows the story, but Elton John put into words how the world felt after Lennon’s murder. Bereft, empty, confused. Such a beautiful song about such a sad moment in our collective history. So it turns out my favorite Elton John songs are super-downers; I suppose I could have gone with his kitschy duet with Kiki Dee, or one of his many, MANY castle-storming monsters like the Bitch Is Back, or Saturday Is Alright for Fighting, or Philadelphia Freedom, or Bennie And The Jets, or