Elton John & Bernie Taupin’s current Grammy nomination (best song written for visual media for “Never Too Late”) is their first as a songwriting team in 54 years. They share the nod with Brandi Carlile and Andrew Watt. The song, which was written for the documentary Elton John: Never Too Late, was nominated for an Oscar earlier this year.
It’s the first time John and Taupin have been nominated for a Grammy as a team since their music for the British-French teen romance Friends (no relation to the later smash TV series) was nominated for best original score written for a motion picture or a television special at the 1972 ceremony. (It lost to Isaac Hayes’ blockbuster Shaft soundtrack).
Amazingly, no John-Taupin collab has ever been nominated for song of the year. “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” was nominated for record of the year at the 1975 ceremony, but not song of the year. Their Oscar-winning “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman failed to even land a nod for best song written for visual media.
Both John and Taupin have been nominated for songwriting collabs with other partners. John received four nominations for the 1995 ceremony for co-writing songs for The Lion King with Tim Rice. “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and “Circle of Life” were nominated for both song of the year and best song written specifically for a motion picture or for television. (The songs lost to Bruce Springsteen’s haunting “Streets of Philadelphia” from Jonathan Demme’s AIDS drama Philadelphia, an outcome that John, a longtime AIDS activist, was probably more than OK with.) John and Rice won best musical show album in 2001 for composing the score for Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida.
Taupin received a best country song nod for the 2003 ceremony for co-writing “Mendocino County Line” with Matt Serletic. Willie Nelson recorded the song with Lee Ann Womack for his 50th studio album, The Great Divide.
John broke through in 1970, but didn’t win his first Grammy until 1987, for his featured role on Dionne & Friends’ “That’s What Friends Are For.” He won his first Grammy for one of his own records in 1992 when “Basque” won best instrumental composition. He composed the instrumental for flute player James Galway.
John has won five Grammys, far fewer than you might imagine for an artist of his stature. Taupin has yet to win one. “I’ve never been a favorite of the Grammys, I have to say,” John told writer Chris Willman in a current cover story for Variety. “It’s been very rare that I’ve won anything.”
John’s husband, David Furnish, added: “Elton and Bernie have never won a Grammy — can you believe that? — as a pair of songwriters.”
John received a Grammy Legend Award in 2000 but has yet to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy. Taupin has yet to receive a Trustees Award (the equivalent award for non-performers). They have fared better in other prestigious honors programs. They received the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s highest honor, the Johnny Mercer Award, in 2013, and are the reigning recipients of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
How does John and Taupin’s tepid Grammy showing compare with other legendary songwriting teams? Let’s start with the most fabled songwriting collaboration of them all – John Lennon and Paul McCartney. They received 10 Grammy nods in songwriting or composing categories.
Let’s also look at the nine collaborations that have received the Johnny Mercer Award from the SHOF. All but one has received at least one Grammy nod as a team. That one is the human hit factory known as Holland/Dozier/Holland, who collaborated on some of the biggest and best hits of the 1960s, including “Stop! In the Name of Love,” “You Can’t Hurry Love,” “I Can’t Help Myself” and “Reach Out I’ll Be There.” No Grammy nods for any of those songs? Please.
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, like John and Taupin, received two Grammy nods as a team. Looking at the other Mercer Award recipients, and listing them in ascending order in number of nods as a team, we find Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (four), Broadway scribes Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (five), Burt Bacharach and Hal David (six), Broadway scribes Betty Comden and Adolph Green (eight), Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff (nine) and Marilyn and Alan Bergman (11).
This year’s other nominees for best song written for visual media are “As Alive as You Need Me to Be” from TRON:Ares (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross), “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters (EJAE & Mark Sonnenblick) and three songs from Sinners – “I Lied to You” (Ludwig Göransson & Raphael Saadiq), “Pale, Pale Moon” (Ludwig Göransson & Brittany Howard) and “Sinners” (Leonard Denisenko, Rodarius Green, Travis Harrington, Tarkan Kozluklu, Kyris Mingo & Darius Poviliunas). “Golden” also received a nomination for song of the year, so it’s probably the front-runner in this category.
