This proved Lady Gaga can sing anything! Mother Monster gave one of her most heartwarming performances when she covered Elton John’s “Your Song” for his Grammy Salute in front of the great man himself. This was a very personal moment for Gaga, who has called John her “longtime mentor” and one of her biggest inspirations. Gaga sang this one like it was her own song – straight from the heart.
Hearing Gaga perform the 1970 soft rock hit showed that she can effortlessly sing a style outside of her normal wheelhouse and still totally kill it. Hearing her husky low range in the verses is a real delight. Gaga leaves the best till last, rising to a creamy high note just before the four-minute mark to close out the song with a delectable vocal run. The Music Man always has time for Lady Gaga, and seeing the touching emotion that she brought to the table here made this a very special performance.
Eagle-eyed viewers may note that Gaga performed at the Grammy Salute with John’s band as her backing group. They absolutely knocked it out of the park, of course, as did Gaga on the piano. Gaga completed the tribute by replicating John’s iconic look from 1973, where he rocked a white suit with a flamboyant feather trim and rhinestone sunglasses.
Fans gave plenty of love for Gaga’s cover, adding comments such as “Gaga is on another level. What makes this special is how she balances technical perfection with raw emotion. Not many performers can thread that needle” and “How gifted this woman is. I cannot get enough of her version of this masterpiece. It literally burst me into tears.” Gaga has played John’s songs on several occasions, including the time when she joined The Rocket Man himself to play “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” on the Sunset Strip.
The video showing Gaga’s performance of “Your Song” features Gaga playing during rehearsals. When she did the performance on the night, John and his longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin attended as the guests of honor and saw her rendition of the classic ballad.
John wrote the music for “Your Song” while Taupin handled the lyrics. The Music Man readers might be interested to hear that the Rocket Man released the soft rock number on October 26, 1970, and it became his first international top 10 hit.
“Your Song” hit the top 10 in the US, UK, Ireland, and hit the top 5 in Canada and the Netherlands. The song has been considered not only one of John’s greatest songs, but also one of the greatest songs of all time by both critics and fans. One notable example of this critical acclaim was when Rolling Stone ranked the song at number 137 on its 2004 list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.