I don’t hear this song much; since the original version’s subtitle was “Goodbye Norma Jean” I assume Elton was discussing Marilyn Monroe. And his “1997” version seems possibly to take up the tragic death of Princess Diana.
Is this right? And…what exactly does the similie “Candle in the Wind” mean, anyway, as Elton uses it?
Yes (Marilyn) and yes (Diana). I believe the titular line has to do with being too easily extinguished.
Not sure there’s been anything definitive stated from Taupin or Elton, but I gather it’s a pretty simple metaphor to translate.
The flame on a candle in the wind flickers and flutters this way and that. Implying that the subject is a little unstable and easily pushed to and fro. Also that under that strain it could go out at any moment.
Thanx
That kind of reminds me of a line from Roy Clark’s song “Yesterday When I Was Young.” 
The way the ev’ning breeze may tease a candle flame…
The candle burned out long before
The legend ever did.
Yes. In fact it was played by Elton John at Diana’s funeral.
Personally, I think it would have been better if he’d just written a new song altogether.
Well, lyrically that’s basically what he did. There’s very little retained from the orginal version, 2 lines from the chorus is all. Musically, of course, it would have been nice, but I’m guessing timing played a role. Not to mention the opportunity for a certain popular appeal.
Didn’t Bernie Taupin do the lyric rewrite?
Anyway, I understand why it was done that way, it just came across as a little tacky to my mind, nice gesture, but tacky all the same.
I had heard that he would have rather done that, but someone in the media speculated that he would redo Candle in the Wind, and enough people picked up on that idea that he was kind of…pressured into doing so. Don’t recall where I heard that, though.
Marilyn Monroe is specifically mentioned in the lyrics of the original, isn’t she?
Candle in the Wind is the only song to appear on Billboards Top 100 in three successive decades, all by the same performer, each version different from the other, and each re-release vastly more popular than the one preceding it. The original made it to #89 (or something that low), the second, a live version recorded in Australia, made it to #6 in the late 80s, and the Diana song made it to #1 and became the biggest selling single in US history.
Go figure. But it makes for a hell of a trivia question - “What’s the only song to appear 3 times on the Billboard hot-100, each time by the same artist but different versions of the same song?”
The song begins “Goodbye, Norma Jean.”
And ends “More than just our Marilyn Monroe”
Changed to “Goodbye English Rose”. IIRC Elton said at the time that the Diana version would either not be relased commercially or would not be available for radio play in the UK to avoid upsetting “her boys” (ie the Princes wouldn’t be constantly confronted with a song about their mother and her death) but I’m pretty sure this guideline hasn’t been followed.
Thanks – I knew I remembered hearing that.
Aside: I think it’s amusing that the Google ads threw out a “JFK letters” ad for this thread.
I remember that morning like it was yesterday. I was a sobbing, blubbering mess throughout the whole procession. That song just finished me off.
Better yet, it gutters. It burns unsteadily, it consumes itself, it is squalid and degraded.
Hmm, just a bit. It was released as “Candle In The Wind 97”, was the fastest selling single ever in the UK, and sold 30 million copies worldwide.
As well as making all right-thinking music fans boke.
Just curious; what does “boke” mean?
Here’s a contemporary L.A. Times article about the rewrite.
Perfect discription of Norma Jean and Diana.
I don’t know if it’s the origin of the phrase, but “The Candle in the Wind” previously appeared as the title of the fourth and final section of T. H. White’s The Once and Future King. So the metaphor doesn’t originate with Elton John.