WCSX Classic Cuts : Crocodile Rock
WCSX Classic Cuts
Elton John: “Crocodile Rock”
The Hook: “A harmless piece of fluff I pulled out of the air,” says its lyricist, Bernie Taupin.
Year Released: 1972
Album: Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only the Piano Player
Writers: Elton John and Bernie Taupin
Stats: Elton’s first U.S. number-one single, it topped Billboard’s Hot 100 for three weeks and was certified gold (for half-a-million sales) a little more than two months later, on its way to selling more than a million copies.
The Background: Taupin calls it a product of a “teeny bop period” Elton went through, during a time when “glam-rock” bands ruled the British charts.
Elton John’s lyricist Bernie Taupin on “Crocodile Rock.” OC:…horrible clothes. :25
“There’s nothing really to say about that. It was just a nice harmless piece of fluff that I pulled out of the air. I think with Elton we went through a sort of teeny bop period. There was a couple of albums, especially, Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player and that was sort of our glam-rock period in England when we were sort of contemporaries with T. Rex and Slade and Sweet and all those bands and everybody was wearing really horrible clothes.”
