Rocket Man

It was released in the US on 31 March 1972 as the lead single from Honky Château and reached number two in the UK and number six on the Billboard Hot 100. It was inspired by Ray Bradbury's short story "The Rocket Man" in The Illustrated Man, about an astronaut whose work keeps him away from his family for months. Taupin denied that David Bowie's "Space Oddity" was an inspiration, but acknowledged borrowing from the 1970 song "Rocket Man" by Pearls Before Swine, written by Tom Rapp. He has said the first stanza came to him on the motorway on the way to his parents' home, and he had to repeat it to himself for two hours.

The recording is built on piano, with an ARP synthesizer played by engineer David Hentschel and slide guitar by Davey Johnstone. It was the first John song to feature the backing vocal blend of Dee Murray, Nigel Olsson and Johnstone. The single version runs 4:38 and had "Suzie (Dramas)" on the B-side. On the cover of the UK single John wears a Nudie Cohn suit made for John Christopher Ethridge of the Flying Burrito Brothers. Record World predicted on release that the song would be a huge hit.

John played it at Live Aid in 1985 and at the launch site of Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998. After David Bowie died in January 2016, he played a piano version that combined it with "Space Oddity". Kate Bush covered it in 1991, and William Shatner recorded a spoken-word version in 1978. Rolling Stone ranks it 149 on its 2021 list of the 500 greatest songs. The 2017 animated video, co-directed by Majid Adin and Stephen McNally and inspired by Adin's own migration to England, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.