Throwback Thursday Tune

When it was brought to my attention that the “musical” posts here have not been what they used to be, I decided to make it a point to do one today. This one takes us back to 1990. The year before Elton John released his Sleeping With The Past album. The first single was Healing Hands followed by Sacrifice, both of which were top 20 hits.

The third single was one that I remember playing at WMXD in Detroit before it went all urban. The song was a great uptempo song called “Club at the End of the Street.” I have always loved this song as I felt that it had a “60’s” sound/feel to it. After doing a bit of searching, I found out why.

The song, of course , was written by Bernie Taupin and Elton John. According to songfacts.com:

This is a fun song about a fictional hangout where they play the soul music Elton and his writing partner Bernie Taupin have always loved. Elton mentions Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye in the lyrics. Explaining the inspiration in a 1989 interview with Music Connection, Taupin said: “What I would do is I’d take a song like a Drifters song and I’d try to write a Drifters-type lyric. There’s a song on the album called ‘Club At The End Of The Street,’ which is probably the straightest emulation of one of those songs. When you hear it, it has the feel of a song like ‘Under the Boardwalk.’ It’s a real Drifters-style song. So what I would do is I’d make notes for Elton at the bottom of the lyric sheet, like ‘Think Drifters, think this or think that.'”

Elton said that he loved the song. He told Rolling Stone in 2013: “We wanted to write a song like the Drifters would record, one of those Goffin-King, Brill Building songs. It’s the closest we ever got to one.”

The song only charted at #28, but it always makes me want to sing along. The B-Side of the song was Elton’s cover of John Lennon’s Give Peace a Chance. The video is a fun one where you see an animated Elton playing at EJ’s Club and the patrons are dancing away.

Check it out!

Club at the End of the Street

When the shades are drawn
And the light of the moon is banned
And the stars up above
Walk the heavens hand in hand
There’s a shady place
At the end of the working day
Where young lovers go
And this hot little trio plays

That’s where we meet
That’s where we meet
Me and you rendezvous
In the club at the end of the street
Oooh where we meet
Oooh where we meet
Me and you rendezvous
In the club at the end of the street

From the alleyways
Where the catwalks gently sway
You hear the sound of Otis
And the voice of Marvin Gaye
In this smoky room
There’s a jukebox plays all night
And we can dance real close
Beneath the pulse of a neon light

That’s where we meet
That’s where we meet
Me and you rendezvous
In the club at the end of the street
Oooh where we meet
Oooh where we meet
Me and you rendezvous
In the club at the end of the street

There’s a downtown smell of cooking
From the flame on an open grill
There’s a sax and a big bass pumping
Lord have mercy
You can’t sit still
You can’t sit still

That’s where we meet
That’s where we meet
Me and you rendezvous
In the club at the end of the street
Oooh where we meet
Oooh where we meet
Me and you rendezvous
In the club at the end of the street

You can’t sit still
Where we meet
In the club at the end of the street
You can’t sit still
Where we meet
In the club at the end of the street
You can’t sit still
Where we meet
At the club at the end of the street
Where we meet
Where we meet
At the club at the end of the street
You can’t sit still