A Tale of Two Elton John Duets
Full disclosure: I have never been a fan of Britney Spears. I accept she is loved as a pop icon and has influenced other artists. I’ll even admit “Toxic” is a catchy song. But I’ve never truly understood her appeal. Even at the peak of Britney’s popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I always saw rival Christina Aguilera as the far superior singer. Spears’s vocals for a star at her level are weak and most of her songs not even a guilty pleasure as disposable pop.
Anyway, Britney is in the news again, but for a change it’s about music. Spears recently recorded a duet with Elton John, “Hold Me Closer”. Sad to say, it does not change my long tradition of being unimpressed by Spears's music.
“Hold Me Closer” exemplifies many of the weaknesses of current pop culture. Rather than offering anything new and different, it’s a rehash of things people liked in the past, sampling and remixing three old Elton John tunes: “Tiny Dancer”, “The One”, and “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”. Evidently it’s asking too much at this point for a much-hyped duet between two major stars to consist of an original song. “Hold Me Closer” is like the musical equivalent of the Star Wars sequel trilogy: repeating what worked before, but with new technology and effects.
Even as a duet the song fails: the vocals of both singers are mixed so low, they leave no impression on the listener. I’ve played the song multiple times and it just seems to wash over me. If you’re a fan of Britney Spears and/or Elton John, you’ll probably like it, especially since the lyrics and melodies are drawn from classic songs. But the whole ends up being much less than the sum of its parts. It reminds me of what has always been one of my major problems with Britney Spears: her music feels bereft of soul, her vocals thin and robotic. John comes out marginally better only because he wrote the original music.
Now comes the point where I go full boomer and wax poetic about a far superior Elton John duet: the original version of “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” with Kiki Dee.
In some ways it’s unfair to compare a youthful John at the height of his powers and popularity to a rehash of one of his old songs recorded more than 40-50 years later. But listening to “Hold Me Closer” and “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” is like night and day. The former is a warmed-over version of past glories; the latter is one of those past glories. It’s an original tune written by John and Bernie Taupin, rather than a limp cover of one of those songs.
Where the John/Spears track is artificial and overproduced, with any imperfections smoothed out by 21st century digital recording technology, the John/Dee song is organic, written as a tribute to the Motown sound. It feels real. “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” is to “Hold Me Closer” what A New Hope is to The Force Awakens, both in terms of the time they were released, the spirit of the material, and the technical quality of the production. There’s a certain joy and honesty in the former than is totally absent in the latter, which merely feels like calculated corporate product. The vocal back-and-forth between Kiki Dee and John is playful and fun. There seems to be a real dynamic between the two, which is a key element of any good duet.
Western popular culture more and more seems stuck in a trap of nostalgia, artificiality, and an inability to break away from what worked before. In some sense that’s a reflection of capitalism in decline, which has nothing to offer and is incapable of moving society forward. If you enjoy “Hold Me Closer”, there’s nothing wrong with that and I’m glad you liked it more than I did. But “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” is such a superior piece of music it’s not even close.