It’s not serious.’ I was like, ‘All right, let me fucking put that hat on: I’m in Ibiza. “‘This isn’t the “New Tiny Dancer” this is a fun, new version for people to listen to when they’re having a drink in Ibiza and dance to. “What Elton brilliantly said to me was, ‘Don’t put so much pressure on yourself,'” Watt says. “I was like, ‘Dude, no.'” They turned it into a 16-bar loop, played around with the tempo, and gave it a four-on-the-floor club beat. Like, did you just record that?'” Watt says. He asked his friend, producer Cirkut, to work on it with him, and they eventually discovered a Hendrix-like guitar line, played on the original by Caleb Quaye, that even Elton John didn’t remember. “I was just like, ‘If this sucks, no one will ever have to hear it,'” he says, chuckling. Initially, Watt thought reworking the 50-year-old track would be a learning experience. Getting Spears on the song was just icing for him, since she had the same ardor and attention to detail as he did. “Elton reached out, and she loved the idea and wanted to do it.” The producer - who first met John in 2019 when working on the Ozzy Osbourne song “Ordinary Man,” which featured the two singers together - had originally picked “Tiny Dancer” “not only one of my favorite songs of all time but one of the greatest recordings/songs/ballads literally ever.” But he mostly wanted to listen to the original multi-tracks. “It was a long shot because had done a lot of press about how she’s done with music for a while,” Watt says. John had met Spears at the 2014 Oscars viewing party for his AIDS foundation, and she had tweeted the following year about her love of “Tiny Dancer.” It was John and husband David Furnish’s idea to invite Spears to sing on the track, as the couple was considering artists for John to collaborate with following the success of “Cold Heart,” his blockbuster Lockdown Sessionsduet with Dua Lipa. The song became an immediate hit when it came out last week, shooting to Number One in the U.K. She sounds free, which is exactly how her fans hoped she’d sound after news broke last year that she would be freed from the constrictive conservatorship that bound her for years.
It’s a feel-good moment thanks to Spears’ trademark adlibs (a “baby” here and there) and melismatic melodies. On the song, John and Spears sing the verses to John’s 1992 single, “The One,” octaves apart, as an elastic guitar line stretches around the vocals and enfolds them. Her passion for the song shines through on the three-minute reworking of the hit, which adds a springy disco beat, a touch of cavernous echo, and warm synths to the original. “She said, ‘”Tiny Dancer’s” literally one of my favorite songs, which is why I wanted to do it.” “She’s like, ‘Honestly, Elton John,'” he recalls. When producer Andrew Watt first met Britney Spears to record her parts for “Hold Me Closer” - a club-ready duet with Elton John and her first new song in six years - he asked her who her favorite artists are.
0 kommentar(er)
