Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word

"Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word"
Single by Elton John
from the album Blue Moves
B-side	"Shoulder Holster"
Released	1 November 1976
Recorded	22 March 1976
Studio	Eastern Sound, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Length	3:48
Label	Rocket (UK) MCA (US)
Songwriter(s)	Elton John Bernie Taupin
Producer(s)	Gus Dudgeon
Elton John singles chronology
"Don't Go Breaking My Heart" (1976) "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" (1976) "Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance!)" (1977)
Music video
"Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" on YouTube

"Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" is a song written by English musician Elton John and songwriter Bernie Taupin. It was recorded by John and released in 1976, both as a single and as part of the Blue Moves album. It was John's second single released by The Rocket Record Company. The song is a mournful ballad about a romantic relationship which is falling apart.

The song also appeared the following year on Greatest Hits Volume II , though for copyright reasons it no longer appears on the current version of that album. It now appears on Greatest Hits 1976–1986 , The Very Best of Elton John , Greatest Hits 1970–2002 and Diamonds as well as a number of other compilations.

In 2004, Elton John and Ray Charles performed the song on Charles' duet album, Genius Loves Company . It would turn out to be the last recording Charles made before his death that June. ^[1] The duet was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.

Background and composition

"Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" is a mournful ballad about a romantic relationship that is falling apart. Bernie Taupin said: "It's a pretty simple idea, but one that I think everyone can relate to at one point or another in their life. That whole idealistic feeling people get when they want to save something from dying when they basically know deep down inside that it's already dead. It's that heartbreaking, sickening part of love that you wouldn't wish on anyone if you didn't know that it's inevitable that they're going to experience it one day." ^[2]

Elton John began writing the song in 1975 in Los Angeles. Whilst many of his songs involved Taupin writing lyrics first, then John writing the music later, John wrote the melody and most of the lyrics for "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word", and Taupin completed it afterwards. John explained: "I was sitting there and out it came, 'What have I got to do to make you love me.'"

Taupin later said: "I don't think he was intending on writing a song, but we were sitting around an apartment in Los Angeles, and he was playing around on the piano and he came up with this melody line, and I said, 'Hey, that's really nice.' For some reason this lyrical line, 'Sorry seems to be the hardest word' ran through my head, and it fit perfectly with what he was playing. So I said, 'Don't do anything more to that, let me go write something,' so I wrote it out in a few minutes and we had the song." Taupin added: "[The i]nteresting thing about 'Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word' is that it's one of the rare occasions when Elton played me a melody line that inspired a lyric, as opposed to our routine of the lyrics always coming first. He was messing around on the piano one day and was playing something and asked me what did I think. It was actually pretty immediate, the title and the first couple of lines came into my head in a way that I guess I felt they were already there and just needed a little prompting." ^[2]

Reception

Billboard praised John's vocal performance, calling it "almost painfully sincere and believable" and also commented on the complexity of the backing vocals. ^[3] Cash Box called it "a tender love song about breaking up." ^[4] Record World called it "Elton's most emotional and moving ballad performance since 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight.'" ^[5]

Personnel

• Elton John – piano, vocals
• Ray Cooper – vibraphone
• Carl Fortina – accordion ^[3]
• James Newton Howard – electric piano, strings arrangement
• Kenny Passarelli – bass

Commercial performance

The song was a Top 20 hit, reaching No. 11 in the United Kingdom, No. 6 in the United States and No. 3 in Canada. ^[6] In addition, the song went to No. 1 on the US and Canadian Adult Contemporary charts. ^{[7] [8]} In the US, it was certified gold on 25 January 1977 by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (1976–1977) Peak position Australia (Kent Music Report) [9] 11 Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders) [10] 25 Canada Top Singles ( RPM ) [6] 3 Canada Adult Contemporary ( RPM ) [8] 1 Ireland (IRMA) [11] 3 Netherlands (Dutch Top 40) [12] 14 Netherlands (Single Top 100) [13] 14 New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ) [14] 7 UK Singles (OCC) [15] 11 US Billboard Hot 100 [16] 6 US Easy Listening ( Billboard ) [7] 1 US Cash Box Top 100 [17] 7

Year-end charts Chart (1977) Rank Canada Top Singles (RPM) [18] 83 US Billboard Hot 100 [19] 95

Sales and certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada) [20]	Gold	75,000^
United Kingdom (BPI) [21]	Silver	200,000‡
United States (RIAA) [22]	Gold	1,000,000^
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Blue version

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"Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word"
Single by Blue featuring Elton John
from the album One Love
B-side	"Sweet Thing"
Released	9 December 2002 (2002-12-09)
Length	3:41 (album version) 3:31 (radio edit)
Label	Virgin, Innocent
Composer(s)	Elton John
Lyricist(s)	Bernie Taupin
Producer(s)	StarGate
Blue singles chronology
"One Love" (2002) "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" (2002) "U Make Me Wanna" (2003)
Elton John singles chronology
"Your Song" (2002) "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" (2002) "Are You Ready for Love" (2003)

v t e Elton John songs
Discography
1960s	"I've Been Loving You" (1968) "Skyline Pigeon" (1968) "Lady Samantha" (1969) "It's Me That You Need" (1969)
1970s	"Border Song" (1970) "Rock and Roll Madonna" (1970) "From Denver to L.A." (1970) "Take Me to the Pilot" (1970) "Your Song" (1970) "Come Down in Time" (1970) "Friends" (1971) "Levon" (1971) "Indian Sunset" (1971) "Tiny Dancer" (1972) "Rocket Man" (1972) "Honky Cat" (1972) "I Think I'm Going to Kill Myself" (1972) "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" (1972) "Crocodile Rock" (1972) "Elderberry Wine" (1972) "Daniel" (1972) "Have Mercy on the Criminal" (1972) "Teacher I Need You" (1973) "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" (1973) "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" (1973) "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (1973) "Step into Christmas" (1973) "Candle in the Wind" (1974) "Bennie and the Jets" (1974) "Harmony" (1974) "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" (1974) "The Bitch Is Back" (1974) "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (1974) "Philadelphia Freedom" (1975) "I Saw Her Standing There" (1975) "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" (1975) "We All Fall in Love Sometimes" (1975) "Island Girl" (1975) "Grow Some Funk of Your Own" (1976) "I Feel Like a Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford)" (1976) "Pinball Wizard" (1976) "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" (1976) "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" (1976) "Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance!)" (1977) "Crazy Water" (1977) "The Goaldiggers Song" (1977) "Ego" (1978) "Part-Time Love" (1978) "Song for Guy" (1978) "Are You Ready for Love" (1979) "Mama Can't Buy You Love" (1979) "Johnny B. Goode" (1979)
1980s	"Little Jeannie" (1980) "Sartorial Eloquence (Don't Ya Wanna Play This Game No More?)" (1980) "Dear God" (1980) "Whatever Gets You thru the Night" (1981) "Nobody Wins" (1981) "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever" (1981) "Blue Eyes" (1982) "Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)" (1982) "Ball and Chain" (1982) "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1982) "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" (1983) "I'm Still Standing" (1983) "Kiss the Bride" (1983) "Sad Songs (Say So Much)" (1984) "Passengers" (1984) "Who Wears These Shoes? (1984) "Nikita" (1985) "That's What Friends Are For" (1985) "Wrap Her Up" (1985) "Heartache All Over the World" (1986) "Slow Rivers" (1986) "Take Me to the Pilot" (1988) "I Don't Wanna Go On with You Like That" (1988) "Town of Plenty" (1988) "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters (Part Two)" (1988) "Through the Storm" (1989) "Healing Hands" (1989) "Sacrifice" (1989)
1990s	"Club at the End of the Street" (1990) "You Gotta Love Someone" (1990) "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" (1991) "The One" (1992) "Runaway Train" (1992) "The Last Song" (1992) "Simple Life" (1993) "True Love" (1993) "Shakey Ground" (1994) "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" (1994) "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" (1994) "Circle of Life" (1994) "Believe" (1995) "Made in England" (1995) "When the Money's Gone" (1995) "You Can Make History (Young Again)" (1996) "Live Like Horses" (1996) "The Madness of King Scar" (1997) "Something About the Way You Look Tonight" (1997) "Candle in the Wind 1997" (1997) "Written in the Stars" (1999)
2000s	"Someday Out of the Blue" (2000) "I Want Love" (2001) "This Train Don't Stop There Anymore" (2002) "Original Sin" (2002) "Are You Ready for Love" (2003) "Ghetto Gospel" (2005) "Electricity" (2005) "The Bridge" (2006) "Joseph, Better You than Me" (2008) "Tiny Dancer (Hold Me Closer)" (2009)
2010s	"All of the Lights" (2010) "Good Morning to the Night" (2012) "Sad" (2012) "Looking Up" (2015) "(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again" (2019)
2020s	"Ordinary Man" (2020) "Sine from Above" (2020) "The Pink Phantom" (2020) "It's a Sin" (2021) "Cold Heart (Pnau remix)" (2021) "Merry Christmas" (2021) "Sausage Rolls for Everyone" (2021) "Hold Me Closer" (2022)
Related	Albums discography Videography
Category:Elton John