The fact that this video gets to the Tiny Dancer chorus faster than the song does

I've always defended that the waiting for the chorus is one of the reasons that makes the 'Thriller' video so popular.

freddie mercury writing bohemian rhapsody: the rest of the band: When does the chorus come in? Freddie: no

This reminds me of Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight", where you have to wait for 3:14 for a breakdown, completely changing how the song feels.

Didn't even realize it took that long to get to the chorus it's that good

No Beatles in the thumbnail? Worry not, Beatles within 50 seconds

This says a lot about human nature, the way anticipation adds so much to being rewarded with stimuli. Anticipating pleasure is almost better than getting it.

Some KZfaqrs even sneak in a Beatles mention less than 1 minute into the video!

Elton John is such a huge inspiration for me. What a legend...

The way Tiny Dancer is used in the film Almost Famous is incredible. It's played after a row of some sort on the tour bus where everyone is sitting in tense silence. The song acts like a healing balm, eventually breaking everyone's bad mood as they all end up swaying and singing along.

Elton definitely understands the idea of building up to the chorus. I read a concert review where the reviewer said he could feel the audience lean forward in anticipation when he came up to the chorus of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me."

David: **says "tiny dancer"** the automatic captions: Thailand answer.

As an old (60 y.o.a.) music teacher I really like you young guys YouTubing. You do a really good job. Our students (and my self!) learn a lot. Hope some day that you shall not rely your income on commercials or product placement. Your wise words, adorable focus on the topic, high skills, your enthusiasm and commitment to education are far to big to live on premises like that. I really envy your skills when it comes to online learning. Thumbs up and love from Denmark 😀❤️

search for "guy at a party who only knows one line of tiny dancer" yep, that's the name for the video

I love how the popularity of the song mirrored the shape of the song itself, by initially growing very slowly, until finally it reached the status of one of his most popular songs.

"Indian Sunset" is structured a bit like this as well and plays out like a movie. It's a real masterpiece of songwriting and composition.

i swear you're the only youtuber i know who gets sponsored by stuff that's actually cool

It’s funny you mention I Want To Hold Your Hand when She Loves You literally opens with the chorus

Is it the chorus yet? No. It's just the building of the verse, so when the chorus does come it'll be more rewarding

Fast Car by Tracy Chapman goes through 3 verses before a chorus. Another fantastic song.

This why Tiny Dancer always feels so damn epic.

‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’ is another Elton song with a late chorus 🎵🎶

"It was a beautiful song, but it ran too long if you're gonna have a hit you gotta make it fit so they cut it down to 3:05" (Billy Joel - "The Entertainer") referring to "Piano man"

"Somebody that i used to know" has also the same trick

A side-effect of watching an insightful video like this is gaining a new respect for a song. Thanks!

Good old Taupin and John. They did it, and spent the rest of their lives explaining how they did it. Song writing Gods.

This breakdown was too good. Now I wondered why I loved this song so much in-spite having no technical knowledge on music 👏

What an interesting way of making a song! He is such a great composer.

This immediately made me think of Where The Streets Have No Name, which takes even longer - first chorus is at 2:48. Bono doesn't even come in with the first verse until 1:47! And the record still sold pretty well from what I remember... kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aayjpbN2utqWdJs.html

David, please do more Elton John videos. His chord progressions were always so good and so... Elton! Even lesser known classics like Little Jeanie, that outro is out of this world.

"Good songs get to the chorus in the first minute" Pink Floyd: *Hold my Crazy Diamond*

Pleaaaaaase make more Elton John videos, He has an entire universe full of songs for us to discover, The way he performs and writes songs, So much to learn and cherish, He is a true master!

It’s really more of classical piece in nature, almost like a mini suite. Truly brilliant and very emotional, very visual, very sentimental. A masterpiece..

Doesn’t “don’t stop believing” have an unusually late occurring chorus too? I can’t quite remember but that sounded familiar

I want to do what you do, man, you give these pieces the analysis they deserve.

I think the tempo change is a really big element that a lot of people these days wouldn't feel comfortable with. I've never, ever thought about how this song has so many tempo changes because if your musicians are good and it's used in a purposeful manner, it totally works. Ditch the grid! Let it feel groovy!

More Elton videos please! 💚💙

The beautiful thing about "Tiny Dancer" is before the chorus, Elton is painting this beautiful picture in our minds. I'll be honest when I'm listening, I don't even realize that 2.5 minutes has gone by when it gets to the chorus. By that time I have this really beautiful picture in my mind and then the chorus is kind of like the cherry on top of an ice cream sundae. It's a quite lovely song. Beautiful lyrics, and Elton really accentuates that with the way he structured it. Thanks for the video. I enjoyed learning more of how the song works so well musically.

Another interesting video. How about a suggestion for a follow up -- Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey (by You-Know-Who) doesn't get to its chorus until 2:32. And Band on the Run takes until 2:37 to get to its chorus. Both of these songs were US Billboard #1s. Like Tiny Dancer, the Macca songs also have cinematic qualities and gradually pick up as they go.

I found Elton John's greatest hits in my dad's old records and I wondered why Tiny Dancer wasn't on there since it was released shortly after Tiny Dancer was out. Makes sense now considering it maybe wasn't considered as much of a hit as we think of it today.

Love Elton. Genius musician. And you, my friend, has a truly worthwhile KZfaq channel!! Thank you

You have done a great service in revealing to me that that lyric is “pirate smile”. I always wondered what the hell “Paris mile” had to do with anything. 😂

excellent analysis. please keep them coming

Wonderful song. Thank you !!

Excellent analysis on the Tiny Dancer structure. Elton is a legend in the music story !

One of the most interesting song structures I've ever heard is Springsteen's "Thunder Road." It spends its whole length zigzagging back and forth between the same two chord progressions. One part has a big buildup and is the only part where he sings the song's title, so it feels like the chorus, but it doesn't meet the strict definition, since it only occurs once.

Great video. Tiny Dancer is a masterpiece and Elton sounds amazing singing it off the cuff in that short clip where he discussed the structure. What a talent.

It's funny, I'm an Elton John fan. I liked Tiny Dancer but it was never one of my favorites. That was until October 19th 2019 when I was fortunate enough to see him live at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on his farewell tour. I was waiting for Your Song, like everyone else and I knew it was coming at the end of the show. But 20 minutes or so into the show, he played Tiny Dancer. I don't know how to put it other than there was something magical about it, seeing the video playing on the screen and hearing it live. I fell in love with that song that night.

I remember when my dad got me my first ipod, the first thing downloaded onto it (aside from Justin Beiber's first album...that was not my choice, it was just there), was the album Madman Across the Water. I listened to that and his Greatest Hits trilogy on repeat for what seems like my entire childhood...when i probably got my first Iphone like 2 years later.

Just discovered your channel recently... love it! Keep up the great work!

I love this song because Elton's piano playing mesmerizes me. That, and the string accompaniment coming in at just the right time. Your observations are most certainly correct, of course, but the performance carries the day so much! Just epic. And fascinating to listen to over and over again, largely due to the very things you mention in this video. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and the vintage footage.

class as always! thanks David :)

One of my favourite songs of his. And this is one of the reasons. The fact it steadily and beautifully builds, and then explodes into the chorus.

I think your remarks about the typical structure of pop songs don't apply (at least not so universally) until the 80s or 90s. For one thing, before the disco era, the typical length of a single would be more on the scale of 2-3 minutes rather than 3-4 minutes. Especially in the mid-60s and earlier, 3 minutes would actually be pretty long for a single. Take a look at the run times of the songs the Beatles released as singles - the first one to be 3 minutes or longer is "Ticket to Ride" in 1965, if I recall. Also, I think in the 1960s and 1970s another widespread structure for a pop song would be something like Verse/Chorus - Verse/Chorus - Bridge - Verse/Chorus - Bridge - Verse/Chorus, where the verse can end with a short "hook" rather than a full-fledged chorus section. The prototypical example of this is "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and many many songs from the 1960s and 1970s have some variation of this structure. The thing to notice is that this form features short, dramatic sections that occur multiple times. Rather than having a "pre-chorus" section that ramps up intensity from the verse to the chorus, the Verse/Chorus section can function as a single unit that propels us all the way through from start to finish, with a bridge section intervening once or twice to give us relief from the high energy and take us in a new direction. Now that I think about it, this structure seems like an extended version of the older AABA form that you mention in the video; instead of just AABA, it's AABABA. I love thinking about the structure of pop songs, so thank you so much for making this video!

Been absolutely binging your videos. Absurdly and absolutely fantastic stuff.

I remember being impatient for the chorus because I loved it so much. I learned to appreciate the verses, and realized the long wait was what makes the chorus so satisfying and monumental.

Loved this video! What an amazing song. Another song that does something similar is "Let the sunshine in" from the musical Hair. It doesn't get to the chorus ("Let the sun shine, let the sun shine in, the su-un shine in") until 3 minutes in... and then it repeats the chorus for another 3 minutes! I always loved that : the song is a kind of very progressive crescendo and then it explodes when the chorus arrives.

Top work as always. Love going through well transcribed songbooks and learning about song structure.

Just discovered your channel today and have already learned a ton; thank you!

Just ordered my Vidami....thanks for the discount David, and the wonderful breakdown of this beautiful song!

love your channel and your videos, always super educational and entertaining! keep up the great work

Fantastic insights, thank you very much. I love songs that choose to build tension delaying the chorus.

Brilliant David! Brilliant analysis! This is so helpful for me. Thanks

I really enjoy learning from your videos. Terrific style and content. Thank you

Journey's Don't Stop Believin' is another famous one. It doensn't actually get to the chorus until 3.21! But unlike Tiny Dancer, the song fades out there and doesn't continue: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Stop_Believin%27#Song_structure_and_references

I really enjoy your videos. Makes my love for these songs even greater :) Keep it up!

Another excellent, thank you, David.

Excellent video, David. You deserve twice the subscribers you have now. Every video is interesting and I always learns something.

Really excellent breakdown, sir. I've never thought about the structure of Tiny Dancer. It was...illuminating.

Brilliant break-down and insights. Also really like how you incorporated the product demo and classy/sincere appreciation to your supporters. Big respect, you’re one of the best out there David.

Thank you for this analysis on a very endearing song from my younger days!

Absolutely love your videos and oh my.. Tiny Dancer! What an experience! As mentioned below, the scene in Almost Famous comes to mind

great job on the vids, your so talented and your the reason I am learning piano!!! Thank you so much David!

You've got a great voice for this!

One of my favorites of yours!!

Thank you David for such meticulous work. Rock on!

Great video! Very interesting!!

10:51 I wonder how much of the bump in sales was due to it being at the best moment in Almost Famous a couple years earlier...

Thanks a lot for a video!

David, I really enjoy your breakdowns of great songs. Excellent job sir!

Off the top of my head, the Beatles used a similar delay of the chorus in songs like Come Together, Baby You're A Rich Man, or Got to Get You Into My Life.

This is legit my fave ever Elton John song

Great analysis. Loved how you pointed out the tempo changes, and the AABA form in the verses. Thanks for another great video. Well done!

Brilliant analysis, as usual.

Epic

In power metal band Sabaton's Cliffs of Gallipoli has the first chorus at 1:25, Panzerkampf at 1:32, The Price of a Mile starts its chorus at 1:36, The Final Solution has the chorus starting at 1:52, Rise of Evil starts its first verse at 1:29 and the first chorus at 2:09. It's not that long, but it's twice or three times what you'd expect. This got me thinking; "Is this the band's style or the genre?" Powerwolf's Incense and Iron has its first chorus at 1:24, Dragonforce's Through the Fire and the Flames starts the chorus at 1:36. Then I went to look at the broader genre and AC/DC's Thunderstruck has its first chorus at 1:51, Metallica's For Whom the Bell Tolls starts its first verse at 2:06 and the chorus starts at 2:38 and Iron Maiden's Run to the Hills has its first chorus at 1:10. For some reason, metal, though still being aimed at broad audiences, has their choruses way later then pop songs.

This song (among many other Sir Elton songs) gives me chills. I love it so much.

This was an excellent, informative, and entertaining video. Thanks so much!

I don't need it, but that Vidami pedal is a cool bit of kit!

I love Elton, love this song, and this video was great. I'm still completely unable to not hear "Tony Danza" bc my dad sang it like that one time twenty years ago.

Always loved this song. Brilliantly put together with such a great melody.

This is wonderful. Thank you David.

This is similar to why I love the Gotye song "Heart's a Mess". The full version of the song takes 2:50 to play through two verses and a couple musical interludes before finally paying off with three choruses in a row, back to back. And then the song ends. So interesting structurally. The radio edit (and music video version) cut the first of the three choruses to shorten the song, but can't really stop the length of that first half.

7:50 Sounds like Elton almost muffed the lyric, starting "with" and finishing "in". "And now she's w'in me..."

Man, your content is my favorite on the internet right now. I've been trying to sleep, but I keep watching one video after another and I'm so happy to be learning so much. I feel that I'm getting more prepared to be more creative than ever. Thank you very much, you're a very talented music content maker. Wish you all the best!!

Never seen your channel before don't know how I I found it love the presentation love the work ethic

"Modern pop-music like Bob Dylan" :D

Without Bernie Taupin , he is only Reginald Dwight.

Very well explained, many thanks!!! Subscribed 🤗

Absolutely classic song and incredible analysis