Revamp

A tribute album called Revamp with Elton John songs—that’s a legitimacy test. If you can get Mary J. Blige, Coldplay, The Killers, Ed Sheeran, Florence + The Machine, and Lady Gaga in the room, your songs probably mean something. The first single is Demi Lovato and Q-Tip doing Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, which is weird enough to actually work.

Elton’s just everywhere. Lion King. His Apple Music radio show. Decades of piano ballads that somehow survived aging the way things from the 70s usually don’t. You grow up hearing him in a way that feels inevitable, like it was always going to happen. The melodies stick.

That’s probably why his stuff is worth covering—the bone structure is there. A solid melody survives different arrangements, different voices. You hear someone else sing an Elton song and you remember yeah, this was always strong. Makes you want to pull something up, listen again, not for sentiment but because you forgot how well it was made.