Your Song (Paparazzi Take) — The Dutch Filming Session of February 17, 1971
In early 1971, Elton John was going through an extremely demanding professional period in the United Kingdom, dividing his time between studio recordings, producing other artists, and an intense schedule of live performances at universities and concert halls. This phase was crucial in establishing his career, driven by the growing international success of “Your Song”.
Throughout January and early February, Elton was frequently in London, working at IBC Studios as producer for Long John Baldry’s album “It Ain’t Easy”, while also maintaining a steady run of concerts across England and Scotland. The accumulated workload led to physical exhaustion, which resulted in the cancellation of several scheduled shows in mid-February, following medical advice.
Documented timeline of the period:
February 1, 1971 – IBC Studios, London, studio sessions
February 3, 1971 – IBC Studios, London, studio sessions
February 4, 1971 – IBC Studios, London, studio sessions
February 6, 1971 – concerts in England and start of “The Elton John Story” series in Melody Maker
February 12, 1971 – concert in Scotland
February 13, 1971 – concert in Scotland
February 14, 1971 – concert in Scotland
February 15–19, 1971 – concerts cancelled on medical advice
February 20, 1971 – return to live performances in Newcastle, England
Source:
http://web.archive.org/web/20090217221759/http://www.whizzo.ca/elton/ej1971.html
This break between February 15 and 19 coincided with short promotional trips outside the United Kingdom. It was during this window that Elton John traveled to the Netherlands to appear on the television program TopPop, one of the most influential music shows in continental Europe at the time, produced by the Dutch broadcaster AVRO, now part of AVROTROS.
The filming session for “Your Song” took place on February 17, 1971, in an outdoor location, as part of this European television promotion. The filming date is confirmed by an official photograph preserved by the Dutch National Archives (Nationaal Archief), explicitly dated February 17, 1971, showing Elton John in the same location, wearing the same outfit, with the same hairstyle, and in the same visual environment seen in the video footage.
Dutch National Archives record:
https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/fotocollectie/abb40e16-d0b4-102d-bcf8-003048976d84
Wikimedia Commons version of the same photograph:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Popzanger_Elton_John_in_Nederland,_Bestanddeelnr_924-2769.jpg
The direct visual correspondence between the officially dated photograph and the moving images confirms that the entire filming session occurred on February 17, 1971.
During that session, multiple takes of the performance were recorded using the same setting and basic production setup, with variations in camera angles and staging. From these takes, different edited versions of the same performance were later assembled for television broadcast and promotional use.
Among those takes, one version includes staged figures surrounding Elton John and simulating press photographers, creating the visual impression of media attention and public exposure. These were not real paparazzi, but actors directed to play that role as part of the visual narrative designed for television.
This specific take, referred to here as the “Paparazzi Take”, was not selected by the director as the primary version for wider circulation. Instead, a cleaner edit focusing solely on Elton John, without surrounding figures, was chosen and became the version most widely distributed and later regarded as the standard or “official” promotional video.
The version featuring the staged photographers remained preserved in television archives and alternate broadcast copies, resurfacing later through collectors and archival sources, and today represents a rare visual document of an editorial decision that was ultimately rejected in the final presentation of the song.
The performance was broadcast on the episode of TopPop transmitted on February 17, 1971, a date consistently associated with this appearance in Elton John career chronologies and in historical records of the program itself.
Information about TopPop:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TopPop
Information about AVRO and AVROTROS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVROTROS
The alignment between the officially dated photograph, the documented gap in Elton John’s concert schedule, and the historical broadcast date of the TopPop episode confirms that the filming and the television transmission belong to the same promotional event during his brief stay in the Netherlands in mid-February 1971.
This audiovisual record documents a transitional moment in Elton John’s career, when “Your Song” was becoming an international success and his public image was still being shaped by European television appearances, shortly before his global breakthrough later in the decade.
The survival of the “Paparazzi Take” offers valuable insight into early 1970s television production practices and editorial choices, illustrating how different visual narratives could be tested during a single filming session, even if only one version ultimately became widely known.
SOURCES ON ELTON JOHN’S SCHEDULE AND MOVEMENTS (1971)
Whizzo Chronology – Elton John 1971 (via Internet Archive)
Detailed chronology of concerts, studio sessions, and cancellations
http://web.archive.org/web/20090217221759/http://www.whizzo.ca/elton/ej1971.htm
SOURCES ON THE FILMING / DATE / OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH
Nationaal Archief (National Archives of the Netherlands) — official photographic record
Photograph dated February 17, 1971, showing Elton John at the filming location
https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/fotocollectie/abb40e16-d0b4-102d-bcf8-003048976d84
Wikimedia Commons — same photograph from the Nationaal Archief collection
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Popzanger_Elton_John_in_Nederland,_Bestanddeelnr_924-2769.jpg
PDF record: https://proxy.handle.net/10648/abb411cc-d0b4-102d-bcf8-003048976d84
(Used for direct visual comparison between the photograph and the video footage)
SOURCES ON THE TV PROGRAM AND THE BROADCASTER
TopPop — program history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TopPop
AVROTROS — current broadcaster (merger of AVRO + TROS)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVROTROS
(AVRO was the original broadcaster that produced TopPop in 1971)
SUPPORTING SOURCES FOR LOCATION CONTEXT (PARK / AMSTERDAM AREA)
(Used for contextual reference, not as direct proof of the filming site)
Amsterdamse Bos — park in Amstelveen, Amsterdam metropolitan area
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdamse_Bos
Keywords:
Elton John, Your Song, TopPop, Paparazzi Take, AVRO, AVROTROS, Dutch television, 1971 music television, Elton John Netherlands, Nationaal Archief, rare Elton John footage, early Elton John career, television promotion 1971, European TV appearances
#EltonJohn #YourSong #TopPop #PaparazziTake #EltonJohn1971 #AVRO #AVROTROS #DutchTelevision #RareFootage #MusicHistory #RockHistory #ClassicPop #EltonJohnArchive #EltonJohnVideo #VintageTV #1970sMusic #EuropeanTV #EltonJohnNetherlands #TheIllustratedEltonJohnTimeline
