Tiny Dancer

Taupin's lyric was inspired by his first visit to the United States in 1970 and meant to capture California, where the women he met seemed very different from those he knew in England. He said in a 1973 Rolling Stone interview that the song is about Maxine Feibelman, then his wife. In 2019 she said she knew it was about her, and recalled that she had been into ballet as a girl and sewed patches on John's jackets and jeans. The verses are carried by piano. The arrangement adds pedal steel guitar by B. J. Cole, light percussion, Paul Buckmaster's strings and a quiet choir, with Tony Burrows among the backing singers.

At 6 minutes 12 seconds it was a poor fit for radio. Released as a single in 1972, it reached only number 41 in the US and was not issued as a single in the UK. Some edits stopped it after the first chorus, and some stations banned it over the line about "Jesus Freaks" in the second verse. It did better in Canada, at number 19, and in Australia, at 13. The full-length version later became a staple on radio, helped by its use in the 2000 film Almost Famous. The Recording Industry Association of America certified it 5.5x platinum in December 2024, and it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2020.

John played it on the first series of The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1971. An orchestral version with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, recorded at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on 14 December 1986, is on Live in Australia. He played it at the New York Film Festival screening of Elton John: Never Too Late on 1 October 2024, his first public performance since the end of his farewell tour.