Song for Guy

Single infobox
Name = Song for Guy


Artist = Elton John
from Album = A Single Man
B-side = "Lovesick"
Released = November 28, 1978 (UK)
March, 1979 (U.S.)
Genre = Classical music
Easy listening
Length = 5:02 (Single)
6:34 (Album)
Label = MCA (US/Canada) Rocket Records
Writer = Elton John, Gary Osborne
Last single = "Part-Time Love"
(1978)
This single = "Song for Guy"
(1978)
Next single = "Are You Ready for Love"
(1979)Extra tracklisting
Album = A Single Man (1998 reissue)
Type = studio
prev_track = "Reverie"
prev_no = 10
this_track = "Song for Guy"
track_no = 11
next_track = "Ego"
next_no = 12

Song for Guy is an instrumental piece of music by Elton John. It is the closing track off his 1978 album, "A Single Man" and is the best known song from that album.

Musical structure

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, 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 sole piano. Shortly after the intro, a rhythm box counts the tempo in and remains audible throughout the song. Ray Cooper plays wind chimes giving the song a floating feel. John also plays synthesizers and other piano instruments. The song is instrumental completely, until the last part of the song in which the line "Life isn't everything" is repeated.

Performance

This song was a live staple for years to come. An instrumental piece, it was often used as a foreplay to another song. It was also one of his most successful singles in his homeland, peaking at #4 in December, 1978, and remaining on the chart for ten weeks. It wasn't released in the U.S. until March, 1979 where it barely made the charts (It peaked at #110).

The single version cut one and a half minute. On "The Very Best of Elton John", this is mistaken as the duration when it's actually the album version that appears.

Personnel

*Elton John - piano, mellotron, polymoog, synthesizer
*Ray Cooper - wind chimes, shakers
*Clive Franks - bass
*Rhythm box - rhythm box