"Don't Go Breaking My Heart" is a 1976 duet by Elton John and Kiki Dee. It was written by Elton John with Bernie Taupin under the pseudonyms "Ann Orson" and "Carte Blanche", respectively, and intended as an affectionate pastiche of the Motown style, notably the various duets recorded by Marvin Gaye and singers such as Tammi Terrell and Kim Weston. It should not be confused with the Burt Bacharach/Hal David song of the same title recorded in 1965 by Dionne Warwick for the album Here I Am. John and Taupin originally intended to record the song with Dusty Springfield, but ultimately withdrew the offer; Springfield's partner Sue Cameron later said this was because she was too ill at the time.
Chart performance
Writers John and Taupin received the 1976 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. Unlike many of John's singles from the 1970s, it was never included on an original album, but was subsequently released as the third single on the album Duets, in early 1994. This version of the song was recorded with RuPaul and reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart and number one in Iceland. "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" was the first No. 1 single in the UK for both John and Kiki Dee, topping the chart for six weeks in mid 1976. John would not enjoy a solo British chart-topper until "Sacrifice" in 1990. It also became his sixth No. 1 single in the US, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks and spent one week on the Easy Listening chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 2 song for 1976, giving him his second consecutive appearance in the Billboard Year-end Top 3. In the U.S., it has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. After this duet with Dee, John failed to have another US solo number one single until "Candle in the Wind 1997". This 21-year period included two intervening number one hits in America with musical partners: "That's What Friends Are For" by Dionne & Friends in 1986, and a 1992 re-make of John's "Don't Let the SunGo Down on Me" with George Michael credited as a duet. The B-side, "Snow Queen", was supposedly inspired by Cher, with John quoting past Sonny & Cher hits "I Got You Babe" and "The Beat Goes On", as well as the solo Cher song "Bang Bang " during the fadeout of the song. In 1977, John guest-starred on The Muppet Show and performed the track with Miss Piggy. In 1985, John and Dee performed the track to the crowd at Wembley Stadium during John's set at Live Aid. In 1987, John appeared with Minnie Mouse on the NBC series Totally Minnie miming to the track. He performed the track with Alan Partridge at the 2001 British Comedy awards. He also performed it with the Spice Girls on his ITV tribute programme An Audience with ... Elton John. In June 2013, 37 years after its original release, the single reached one million sales in the UK.
Availability
The song can be found on Elton John's Greatest Hits Volume II and Greatest Hits 1976–1986; the 1995 UK CD of Rock of the Westies includes it as a bonus track. In 2002, it also appeared on John's 2-disc greatest hits album, Elton John's Greatest Hits 1970-2002. A demo version of the song was recorded by John as a solo artist. This version has not been released commercially. The B-side, "Snow Queen", remained unavailable on CD outside Australia until April 2019 when it was included as a bonus track on the reissue of Kiki Dee's Cage the Songbird album, included in the 5-CD box set The Rocket Years. In May 2019 it was also included on the 3-CD box set Gold, a retrospective of Dee's career spanning various labels.
In 1994, Elton John and American drag queen, actor, model, singer, songwriter, and television personality RuPaul released the song as a duet. It was released as the third single from the album, Duets and reached number 3 on the BillboardDance Club Songs in the US. In Europe, the song peaked at number-one in Iceland and within the top 10 in Portugal and the UK, the top 20 in Denmark, Ireland and Italy, and the top 30 in Austria, France and Switzerland. On the Eurochart Hot 100, "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" peaked at number 18 in March 1994. Outside Europe, the song reached number 39 in New Zealand and number 45 in Australia.
Critical reception
editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine described the song as a "kitschy number" in his review of Duets. Larry Flick from Billboard wrote that John "recreates his classic Kiki Dee duet with the world's favorite drag queen. Revamped quasi-rave/hi-NRG version of the track is way stronger than the less-than-pleasing mix on John's current collection, rendering it a formidable contender for action on both dancefloors and radio. Oodles of good fun." John Kilgo from The Network Forty noted that "the remake of the previous #1 smash is for real..."
