I tried googling but can’t seem to find an answer to the question.
On the Elton John/Bernie Taupin classic song “Tiny Dancer”, Elton seems to have changed the original lyric “Oh how it feels so real” to “Oh how it really feels” in recent concert recordings (not sure when he made the change). And while the lyric he uses now is similar to the original, it’s not the same and it distracts me every time I hear it.
Has Elton ever talked about why he changed it or does anyone know why he changed it? He is usually pretty good a sticking to original words for his songs.
Well I seem to have stumbled across least part of the answer… according to someone who posted a video of a Miami concert from 1988.
“You’re looking at a very unique version of Tiny Dancer. This is the only known version post surgery where Elton sings the original lyrics. Starting in late 1980, Elton changed the line “Oh, how it feels so real” to “Oh, how it really feels”. He has not sung the original lyrics since. In addition, this is the only time where he does embellishments like he did in 1984.”
Interesting.
Seems to me that “it feels so real” to “it really feels” doesn’t change the meaning by much if at all.
Then to my ears, the original “it feels so real” sounds a skosh better though this might just be bias toward the one I’m more familiar with. As to singing the line, I can’t see how one is that much easier to form vocally than the other.
The one example I can think of when an artist deliberately changed the line of song –with obvious intent- is Paul Simon.
His song **Kodachrome **originally contained the line, “Everything looks worse in black and white.” Years (decades) later he emphatically changed the line to, “Everything looks *better *in black and white.”