Background
Although "I'm Still Standing" is often seen as a statement of John's resilience,Taupin wrote the lyrics with a specific person in mind.
It's perhaps one more example of the original idea being interpreted by everyone into something quite different. I think people see it as an anthem based on Elton's strong sense of survival in the face of adversity. Which,believe me,is perfectly fine by me. In fact,it's probably infinitely more interesting,perhaps,than what it was initially written about. Which,if my memory serves me correctly,it was a sort of kiss off to an old girlfriend. You know the sort of thing,'Don't you worry about me,I'll be perfectly fine.' Unlike George Jones' 'She Thinks I Still Care,' where,in fact,he really did,I really didn't." [8] [9]
Music video
The music video,directed by Russell Mulcahy,was shot in Cannes and Nice on the Côte d'Azur in France. It also features the colours of the flag of France in graphics. Arlene Phillips,who choreographed the routines performed on location in the video,said her work is one of the proudest moments in her entire career (via the Channel 5 pop-documentary,Britain's Favourite 80s Songs,on 25 December 2021).
Bruno Tonioli,later a judge on hit shows Strictly Come Dancing for BBC (UK), Dancing with the Stars for ABC (US) and Britain's Got Talent for ITV (UK),appears as one of the dancers in the video.
Initially,John was supposed to take part in the choreography for the music video,but that plan was later scrapped as he recalls in his autobiography:
Visibly stunned by my demonstration of the moves I’d honed on the dance floors of Crisco Disco and Studio 54,the choreographer Arlene Phillips went pale and suddenly scaled down my involvement in that side of things,until all I really had to do was click my fingers and walk along the seafront in time to the music. [10]
It was due to be shot over the course of two days,but a camera full of the first day's film was ruined when Mulcahy accidentally fell into the sea with it. Therefore,it had to be filmed again on another day. During the shoot for the video,John came across Duran Duran. He complained he was exhausted at having been up since four o'clock in the morning. Simon Le Bon decided John should have a martini. "So I did," John later recalled,"I had six." [11]
In his book,Wild Boy:My Life in Duran Duran,Andy Taylor writes of the experience:
There were lots of celebrities around in Cannes and one day we discovered that Elton John was in town,filming the video for his song "I'm Still Standing". This was before Elton became teetotal,so he was still a steaming party animal. We went up to see him at his hotel and spent the afternoon getting blasted on martinis. We decided it would be a laugh to get him drunk and we were slinging the drinks down him. "Ooh,you are lovely boys," he screeched,loving every minute of it. We got him so drunk that eventually he went upstairs and threw a wobbler in his suite. It caused all sorts of chaos,but it was a great party. [12]
The next morning,John awoke with a hangover and wandered into his personal assistant's room –which was "leveled" –and asked him "What happened?" His assistant laughed:"You happened!" [11]
In 2019,the original 16mm film negatives were re-scanned and the computer graphics were recreated,forming a newer remastered version of the promotional video. [13] This version of the video serves as the ending to the 2019 biopic Rocketman ,with Taron Egerton (portraying John) rotoscoped in to recreate memorable scenes from the original music video. It was also re-released standalone on John's YouTube channel.
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