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"Song for Guy" is a mainly instrumental piece of music by Elton John. It is the closing track of his 1978 album, A Single Man and is the best known song from that album.
Although it has words - "Life... Isn't ever-y-thing" - this Elton John composition can rightly be classed as an instrumental. Guy Burchett was a messenger for Elton's label, Rocket Records. According to reviewer Claude Bernadin, Elton wrote and recorded this piece on the afternoon of Sunday, August 18, 1978. He had felt it was a song about death, and only learned the next day that Guy had been killed that very afternoon in a motorcycle accident.
The single was released November 28, backed by "Love Sick;" it was Elton's first UK top 5 hit for six years.
The album version runs to a lengthy 6 minutes 53 seconds, although there have been various edits including a CD single released in 2000, running to 3 minutes 52 seconds. This is the Sunstorm Radio Edit by Hurley and Todd; another version, the Sunstorm Mike Koglin Remix, also by Hurley and Todd, was likewise put out in 2000, and runs to 8 minutes 12 seconds.
"Song For Guy" shows an introspective, thoughtful Elton, obviously reflecting on his own mortality. (thanks, Alexander Baron - London, England, for all above)
Elton said this in the sleeve notes of the 7" single:
"...As I was writing this song one Sunday, I imagined myself floating into space and looking down at my own body. I was imagining myself dying. Morbidly obsessed with these thoughts, I wrote this song about death. The next day I was told that Guy (Burchett), our 17 year-old messenger boy, had been tragically killed on his motorcycle the day before. Guy died on the day I wrote this song."
The song opens with solo piano. Shortly after the intro, a percussion section comes in, with additional wind chimes and synthesizers layered in as the melody repeats. The song is instrumental until the end, in which the line "Life, isn't everything" is repeated over the primary melody line of the song.
A Single Man é o décimo segundo álbum de estúdio do cantor e compositor britânico Elton John, lançado em 1978.
É o primeiro álbum criado sem o seu antigo colaborador Bernie Taupin. Como Gary Osborne era um desconhecido na época, muitas pessoas interpretaram mal o título do álbum afirmando que Elton escreveu o álbum inteiro sozinho.
O hit "Song for Guy" foi um tributo a Guy Burchett, um jovem funcionário da gravadora Rocket Records que foi morto em uma de acidente de motocicleta. A canção quase foi um sucesso mundial, sendo bem colocada em todas as paradas, exceto nos Estados Unidos e Canadá, onde a MCA, gravadora de Elton, não acreditou que a canção tinha potencial, devido ao recente sucesso de "The Music Box Dancer".
