Bernie Taupin Wrote This Iconic 1971 Elton John Song About Multiple Women

I think we’ve all heard Elton John‘s 1971 song “Tiny Dancer” at least once. It’s one of those iconic yet cryptic songs that really puts an image in your mind, but also makes you wonder who the inspiration behind it was. From “Candle In The Wind” to “Someone Saved My Life Tonight”, there’s always conversation surrounding the muses for John and Taupin’s collaborations.

When it comes to this particular song, however, it’s probably not who you’d think.

Maxine Feibelmann, whom Taupin married in 1971, told The Daily Mail in 2019 that she “knew” “Tiny Dancer” was about her. Feibelmann was a seamstress and quite literally sewed patches on John’s clothes from time to time. This makes the lyric “Seamstress for the band” sound like an obvious hint. Aside from that, it would seem that Feibelmann was indirectly involved in much of the duo’s creative work.

“Bernie would be up in our bedroom, writing lyrics. When finished, he would show them to me,” she explained. “Next morning, he’d walk downstairs to the dining room to see Elton for breakfast.”

Feibelmann even helped Taupin and John come up with the title for his 1974 song, “The Bitch Is Back”. However, with “Tiny Dancer”, it would seem that there’s a little bit more to the story.

The Women That Inspired “Tiny Dancer”

Even though Taupin and Feibelmann would have been dating at the time “Tiny Dancer” was written, the lyricist would eventually admit that there was not one, but multiple women that inspired the song.

The first time Taupin came to the Sunshine State, he was struck with inspiration by the “dancers” he encountered.

“We came to California in the fall of 1970, and sunshine radiated from the populace,” Taupin shared with Gavin Edwards. “I was trying to capture the spirit of that time, encapsulated by the women we met—especially at the clothes stores up and down the Strip in LA. They were free spirits, sexy in hip-huggers and lacy blouses, and very ethereal, the way they moved. So different from what I’d been used to in England. And they all wanted to sew patches on your jeans. They’d mother you and sleep with you—it was the perfect Oedipal complex.”

As for the “tiny” part of the song, Taupin tells Edwards that, “although they were all petite and lithe,” that was more of a “poetic license.”

Photo by: Allan Tannenbaum/Getty Images

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