Tiny Dancer - The Real Seamstress for the Band
Maxine Feibelman inspires a classic bit of rock 'n roll.
Until the movie Rocket Man hit the silver screen many people were unaware of the partnership that exists between Elton John and his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin. I was fortunate to have a mother who was a big fan of Elton, and way back in the 1970’s became aware that Bernie was the lyricists, while Elton the music man and vocals that made all these songs come alive.
In a strange twist of fate, both Bernie Taupin and Elton John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight) answered a 1967 advertisement in the New Musical Express that was seeking songwriters. The ad had been placed by London-based Liberty Records, specifically by manager Ray Williams. Elton came into Liberty’s offices to interview with Williams, hoping to become a singer-songwriter. Handed a manilla envelope containing “some poems and lyrics written by a guy named Taupin,” Williams wondered if any of these “poems” could be turned into songs? We all know the rest, as both Taupin and John were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992.
One of the great songs written and recorded by Taupin and John was 1971’s “Tiny Dancer” which was the opening track for the album Madman Across the Water. The “seamstress for the band” mentioned in the song was a real person, she was Maxine Feibelman, the wife of lyricist Bernie Taupin.
“I had been into ballet as a little girl, and sewed patches on Elton’s jackets and jeans,” she said. When Taupin and John had arrived in L.A. in late 1970, Feibelman so beguiled Taupin that he wrote the rapturous “Tiny Dancer” for her. John’s skyrocketing melody got a little help from Paul Buckmaster’s strings and from organist Rick Wakeman. Nearly thirty years later the movie Almost Famous propelled the song into the national consciousness once more.
At over six minutes in length “Tiny Dancer” was never meant to be a hit single, although an edited, radio version of the song did peak at number thirty-four on the Billboard Hot 100. The song fared better live, gaining a loyal following with Elton’s fans over the decades. In 2020, “Tiny Dancer” was ranked by Rolling Stone as number forty-seven in their Top 500 Songs of All Time.