# three questions about Benny and the Jets **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 13, 2010, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-questions-about-benny-and-the-jets/543048 "2010-06-13T22:11:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-questions-about-benny-and-the-jets/543048/41 "2010-06-15T20:38:50Z")
I loved the Moe Hair visual pun! No firearms necessary! As for this thread, I am grateful that others have admitted to not knowing the lyrics as they heard the song. The only thing I could think of was that this tied into a gang, like someone mentioned above, from WSS, with the Jets and the Sharks. So, with that in mind, I tried to decipher the lyrics from the song, not the album liner. I got. Hey Kids. Benny and the Jets and I read it in a magazine. All of the other lyrics were guessed at. mostly missed, and totally confusing. So when I went to the web to get the lyrics, I read through them and had no context at all to make any connection. It’s one of the only Elton songs I can still listen to. I will probably forget the lyrics immediately after this thread dies, and go back to my ignorance. But I appreciate the answers in the thread. The biggest surprise to me was the song being made in the studio and the crowd noise added afterward. Was it an urban legend that this was recorded live and put on the album? I heard that as a kid, and everyone seemed to believe the same story. That’s truly ignorance fought. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-questions-about-benny-and-the-jets/543048/42 "2010-06-15T21:48:13Z")
I once sang this song at a live-band karaoke thing and towards the end I sang “OOh _Arch_ie, she’s a-really keen” in a screechy Edith Bunker voice and got a huge laugh. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-questions-about-benny-and-the-jets/543048/43 "2010-06-15T21:55:22Z")
See, I thought the crowd noise was added for a number of reasons: 1. The song fades out - perhaps its the concerts I went to (or hazy memories), but the songs always seemed to end suddenly. 2. The crowd noise is completely missing for much of the song. 3. The crowd noise, when on, is usually over instrumental parts or the very end when he’s just repeating “Bennie! Bennie! Bennie! Bennie and the Jets!”. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-questions-about-benny-and-the-jets/543048/44 "2010-06-15T23:12:30Z")
> [@abbeytxs](#): > > Can’t you be banned for doing that?! :dubious: cochrane: Banned Name! (Excellent pun, btw) ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-questions-about-benny-and-the-jets/543048/45 "2010-06-16T03:10:16Z")
[Bennie & the Jets Youtube video with lyrics displaying as song is sung.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjUk3Bp16zs&feature=related) ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-questions-about-benny-and-the-jets/543048/46 "2012-01-02T17:17:00Z")
I woke this thread up because I was listening to the radio (99.1 in DC), a station that is playing several days of “The History of Rock & Roll” while they are waiting to switch to an all-news format. When they covered Elton John, they mentioned that Benny[ie] and the Jets was recorded live in France. But ever since that song came out it sounded fake-live to me. The crowd noise sounds digitally simulated, and the reverb/echo on the performance also sounds post-production. Other posts above agree that the hit single was a studio cut that was live-ified. Did this series just get it wrong, assuming like so many that it was live? (I did find several sites that said it was recorded in a \*studio \*in France.) ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-questions-about-benny-and-the-jets/543048/47 "2012-01-02T17:59:22Z")
I think the radio station got it wrong. From my long-ago reading of the notes on my LP, I was always knew that it was recorded in a studio in France. [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennie_and_the_Jets) confirms this: > [@](#): > > Produced by Gus Dudgeon, the song was recorded during the “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” sessions in France at Château d’Hérouville’s Strawberry Studios, where John and Taupin had recorded their previous two albums, Honky Chateau and Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-questions-about-benny-and-the-jets/543048/48 "2012-01-03T07:16:31Z")
> [@abbeytxs](#): > > Can’t you be banned for doing that?! :dubious: AND taken to court. Then he’d get the boot AND a Moe-hair suit! ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-questions-about-benny-and-the-jets/543048/49 "2012-01-03T21:57:14Z")
Little know fact: Elton John and Bernie Taupin didn’t actually write the song…they stole it from legendary blues singer Bruno Radolini, who originally wrote it as “Bruno and the Jets” ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-questions-about-benny-and-the-jets/543048/50 "2012-01-03T22:27:41Z")
… and I just Googled “Bruno And The Jets”. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![THCGuitars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@THCGuitars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THCGuitars)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2018, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-questions-about-benny-and-the-jets/543048/51 "2018-05-03T21:28:57Z")
The puns were first-rate. The song analysis was way off and we are all less smart now having read them. How does one find a place to post questions, type all that crud out - with bullets mind you - and not just google mohair? Also, and this is super important for anyone’s musical knowledge - the song is by Bernie Taupin, as are almost every song John ever performed. The Brown Dirt Cowboy - and he’s a freakin’ genius. verse 1 - batj are in concert and it’s a super cool party ya gotta go verse 2 - its ok if we don’t care about sh_t - it’s rock and roll so f_ck the police and the parents. We’ll survive it. turn - back in the day, pop stars filled the pages and covers of thousands of magazines -Tiger-Beat, Teen Idol, Seventeen, etc. And yea, the line in rocket man is “burning out his fuse up here alone”. Also by Taupin. ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2018, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-questions-about-benny-and-the-jets/543048/52 "2018-05-04T00:38:07Z")
There are two things that get on my nerves about this song (she said, carefully ignoring the zombie): 1. The way he sings the line “You know I read it in a magazine.” It came out when I was little, and it took me years to figure it out because of the way he sang the word , “maga-zEEEN-ah” 2. Among the crowd noise near the end, someone whistles in an odd way. It takes me out of the illusion that a cheering crowd is present. No one whistles like that at a concert! At least, not at any concert I’ve attended. 3. Hi, Opal (RIP) ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2018, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-questions-about-benny-and-the-jets/543048/53 "2018-05-04T01:14:06Z")
Eh, they got nothing compared to Leppo and the Jooves ;). ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2018, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-questions-about-benny-and-the-jets/543048/54 "2018-05-04T01:14:38Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > I love threads like this when they discuss a song I’ve known most of my life and have never had a problem understanding! I’m always amazed at how other people hear the same things I do and get confused by a poetic turn of phrase or an awkward wording to make the rhythm and rhyme fit. Or how people search for deeper meaning when it’s just something simple they’ve never come across before. > > A message board I used to frequent for one of my favorite folk singers spent THREE DAYS discussing the significance of his use of the word Fist instead of Hand and what cosmic references could be gleaned from that usage…and all the time I’m screaming (in my head, because I couldn’t post to the thread) "It’s because “fist” rhymes better with “this”!!! And Plato’s shadows in the cave? Just patches of dark, pay them no mind. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-questions-about-benny-and-the-jets/543048.md?page=2)