This week we’re featuring songs with a person’s name in the title, and today’s classic song of the day is Elton John’s “Daniel.” Released in January of 1973, “Daniel” was one of Elton’s biggest hits, rising to #2 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100. It’s become one of his most popular songs.
Like most of Elton’s hits of the era, “Daniel” was penned by Mr. John (music) and his colleague Bernie Taupin (words). Mr. Taupin said he wrote the song after reading a story about a wounded Vietnam War veteran who wanted to travel to Spain to get away from all the unwanted attention he was receiving back home. That was supposedly evident in the song’s original final verse, which Elton supposedly got rid of because the song was running a little long.
Here’s how Mr. Taupin explains the lyrics:
“I’d seen this article in Time magazine on the Tet Offensive. And there was a sidebar next to it with a story about how many of the soldiers that were coming back from ‘Nam were these simple sort of down home country guys who were generally embarrassed by both the adulation and, depending on what part of the country you came from, the animosity that they were greeted by. For the most part, they just wanted to get back to a normal life, but found it hard, what with all the looky loos and the monkeys of war that they carried on their backs…. I just took it from there and wrote it from a younger brother’s perspective; made him disabled and wanting to get away. I made it Spain, basically, because it rhymes with plane.”
And here are the missing lyrics:
Don’t forget Daniel when the plane touches land
There’s someone in England who still gives a damn
And I did my best to help you forget
War sure is hell when heroes can’t rest
You’re a book I have read dear Daniel
You’re a test I have yet to take Daniel
And try if you can to sleep tonight
If Spain really helps you then you’ll be alright
(Okay, maybe they axed those verses because they really weren’t that good, compared to the rest of the song. Your opinion may vary.)
Without the context of the missing lyrics, “Daniel” appears to be about the bond between two brothers, one of whom is leaving home:
Daniel is travelin’ tonight on a plane
I can see the red taillights headin’ for Spain
Oh, and I can see Daniel wavin’ goodbye
God, it looks like Daniel
Must be the clouds in my eyes
Some people theorized that Daniel was actually killed in a plane crash, and that the song is his younger brother eulogizing him. Others think it’s about a man’s gay brother forced to leave his home town over anti-gay prejudice. I can see where people get those takes, but the song makes more sense when you realize that Daniel was a veteran wounded in the war, feeling “the pain of the scars that won’t heal.”
One of the amazing things about “Daniel” is how fast it came together. Elton, Bernie, and their band were at the Chateau d’Herouville in France (AKA the “Honky Chateau”), recording the album that would become Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only the Piano Player. On the morning of June 10, 1972, Bernie wrote the lyrics for “Daniel” and brought them downstairs to his partner. Elton then set them to music and called the members of the band into the studio, where they recorded the track in just three takes. One good day is all it took to make a classic.
