All Quiet on the Western Front (song)
| "All Quiet on the Western Front" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Elton John | ||||
| from the album Jump Up! | ||||
| B-side |
"Where Have All the Good Times Gone" (Alternate Version) | |||
| Released | November 1982 | |||
| Length | 6:00 | |||
| Label |
Geffen (US) Rocket (UK) | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Elton John, Bernie Taupin | |||
| Producer(s) | Chris Thomas | |||
| Elton John singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"All Quiet on the Western Front" is a song by Elton John with lyrics by Bernie Taupin. It is the closing track of his 1982 album, Jump Up!. It was also released as a single in the UK without charting.
It is an anti-war song about World War I,[1] and could easily have been influenced by the book of the same name. The song also ends in a big orchestral finale including a church organ chord sequence played by James Newton-Howard on a synthesizer, which could be reminiscent of his earlier album closers such as "The King Must Die" and "Burn Down the Mission".
The song's only live performances came during John's world tour during 1982, outside North America. At a concert on Christmas Eve of the same year at the Hammersmith Apollo, London, John jokingly announced that, at the time, it was "the worst-selling single in Phonogram's history".
The version issued on single is shorter, whilst the B-side contains a rockier version of album track "Where Have All the Good Times Gone"; neither have been released in digital form.
See also
References
- ↑ Concert by Elton John on 5 May 1982 in Paris
