The Epic Track: "Tiny Dancer"

Editor’s Note: There are certain tracks that are, well, “epic” — memorable, larger than life, carved into music history. In this series, we look at one of them.

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Those lilting, opening piano notes are instantly recognizable. I’m talking about Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.” One of his best-known songs and a longtime favorite, it took years for it to become an official “hit.” The 1972 release (and opening track) from Madman Across the Water is an evocative love song, right from the first lyrics: “Blue jean baby, L.A. lady, seamstress for the band…”

Its length (6 minutes, 17 seconds) was a barrier to regular radio play at the time. But as any listener knows now, not one second of that track is wasted.

Madman was more heavily produced than John’s prior albums, leaning on the arrangements by Paul Buckmaster. He brought in the lush use of strings, which added emotional depth and color to many of the tracks on that project (Train later recruited him for 2001’s “Drops of Jupiter”). However, I’d argue that “Tiny Dancer” is the most gorgeous example.

Elton and Bernie Taupin had formed their songwriting partnership just a few years before. It proved to be kismet, with Elton effortlessly finding the right melody for Bernie’s lyrics. They’ve both said that typically, they rarely work in the same room. It’s an arrangement that’s held up beautifully for the 57 Top 40 hits they’ve had and the millions of albums they’ve sold.

But I found this clip of the two of them together, as Elton works out the beginnings of “Dancer.” It’s especially interesting because the subject of the song is sitting right there.

She is Maxine Feibelman, an American former dancer who traveled with the band on their 1970 tour of America and was, in fact, their seamstress. She also helped Elton develop the early outlines of his increasingly flamboyant costumes.

For decades, it was rightly assumed that the song is about her; in the clip, Elton even describes her as “Bernie’s girlfriend” (she would become his first wife in 1971). That lore is further cemented with a dedication in the liner notes that reads, “With love to Maxine.”

However, there’s much more to the inspiration for “Tiny Dancer.” Taupin recalls the impact of their first tour of America.

“We came to California in the fall of 1970, and sunshine radiated from the populace. I was trying to capture the spirit of that time, encapsulated by the women we met – especially at the clothes stores up and down the Strip in L.A. They were free spirits, sexy in hip-huggers and lacy blouses, and very ethereal…So different from what I’d been used to in England…”

Can’t you just smell the patchouli?

Although it later found a place on album-oriented radio, “Tiny Dancer” initially only reached #42 on the U.S. charts and was considered a flop. However, the song got another life when director Cameron Crowe used it in a pivotal scene in 2000’s Almost Famous.

When talking to Rolling Stone in 2011, Elton recalled: “[Film producer] Jeffrey Katzenberg called me and said, ‘There’s a scene in this film which is going to make ‘Tiny Dancer’ a hit all over again.’ When I saw it, I said, ‘Oh my God!’ I used to play ‘Tiny Dancer’ in England, and it would go down like a lead zeppelin. Cameron resurrected that song.”

In 2024, it was certified 5x platinum. In his last years of performing live, Elton would faithfully work it into his set. In 2021, he adapted it for Britney Spears’ single, “Hold Me Closer.”