A Son of the Rock

Elton John’s next single came out in 1970. It was the gospel influenced Border Song from his second LP Elton John. Border Song almost tickled the UK charts. In fact Elton sang it on Top of the Pops as a single “bubbling under” – as they said in those days. Such an appearance was something which usually presaged a surge in sales for the next week. With Border Song the opposite happened. Whatever the reasons for this decline (beyond a tendency to didacticism in the last verse) the fact that the song’s hook, “Holy Moses!” wasn’t its title and its title didn’t appear in the song must have contributed. I can still imagine folk walking in to record shops to ask for “Holy Moses” only to be told it didn’t exist.

Border Song does showcase the variety in Elton’s song-writing at the time though.

A You Tube clip of Elton singing Border Song live is apparently the earliest video of him still to survive.