Bennie and the Jets

"Bennie and the Jets" (also titled "Benny & the Jets") is a song written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. The song first appeared on the "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" album in 1973. "Bennie and the Jets" has been one of John's most popular songs and was performed during his appearance at Live Aid.
The track was a massive hit in the United States and Canada, released in 1974 as an A-side and spelt 'Bennie'. In most territories the track was released as the B-side to "Candle in the Wind", but spelt 'Benny'. Album artwork (back-cover track listing and centre-panel design) consistently lists the song as 'Bennie' while either 'Bennie' or 'Benny' appears on the vinyl album depending on territory. The track was released as an A-side in the UK in 1976, as "Benny and the Jets".
Song composition.
The song tells of "Bennie and the Jets", a fictional band of whom the song's narrator is a fan. In interviews, Taupin has said that the song's lyrics are a satire on the music industry of the 1970s. The greed and glitz of the early 1970s music scene is portrayed by Taupin's words:
Taupin also goes on to describe the flashy wardrobe of "Bennie", the leader of the band:
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 Château" and "Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player".
John rarely plays the studio version of the song, and often makes subtle or even drastic changes. Live, the piano solo in the middle of the song has been played in all sorts of variations, from very close to the original to wildly improvised and extended versions, such as the elaborate version during a Central Park concert in 1980 and another memorable take on it during the "Elton and his band" part of the show recorded for what would become "Live in Australia" in December 1986. (It can be seen on various Laserdisc releases of the show.) He has also been known to end the song in a wide range of styles, including classical, swing, boogie-woogie and even using the signature five-note phrase from John Williams' score for "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".
Production.
Contrary to what it seems, the song is not live, but recorded in studio and live sound effects were added later. Producer Gus Dudgeon explained:
He mixed in sounds from a 1972 performance of John in Royal Festival Hall and a 1970 Jimi Hendrix concert at the Isle of Wright. He also included a series of whistles from a live concert in Vancouver B.C., and added hand claps and various shouts.
Single release.
"Bennie and the Jets" or "Benny and the Jets" was the closing track on side one of the album "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", and John was set against releasing it as a single, believing it would fail. CKLW in Windsor, Ontario, began heavy airplay of the song and it became the #1 song in the Detroit market. This attention caused other American and Canadian Top 40 stations to add it to their playlists as well and as a result, the song peaked at #1 on the US singles chart in 1974. In the US, it was certified Gold on 8 April 1974 and Platinum on 13 September 1995 by the RIAA, and had sold 2.8 million copies by August 1976.
"Bennie and the Jets" was also John's first Top 40 hit on what at the time was called the "Billboard" Hot Soul Singles chart, where it peaked at #15, the highest position out of the three of his singles which reached that chart. The acceptance of "Bennie" on R&B radio helped land John, a huge soul music fan, a guest appearance on the 17 May 1975 edition of "Soul Train", where he played "Bennie and the Jets" and "Philadelphia Freedom". In Canada, it held the #1 spot on the "RPM" national singles chart for two weeks (13–20 April), becoming his first #1 single of 1974 and his fourth overall.
Music video.
In May 2017, an official music video for "Bennie and the Jets" premiered at the Cannes Film Festival as a winner of "Elton John: The Cut", a competition organized in partnership with AKQA, Pulse Films, and YouTube in honour of the fiftieth anniversary of his songwriting relationship with Bernie Taupin. The competition called upon independent filmmakers to submit treatments for music videos for one of three Elton John songs from the 1970s, with each song falling within a specific concept category. "Bennie and the Jets" was designated for the choreography category, and was directed by Jack Whiteley and Laura Brownhill. The video was influenced by early cinema and the work of Busby Berkeley, portraying characters as participants on a talent show auditioning for Bennie.
Mondegreens in the song.
The song contains the line "She's got electric boots, a mohair suit", which is often misheard as "She's got electric boobs, and mohair shoes".
A scene in the film "27 Dresses" shows that this is but one of many mondegreens that listeners have invented for this song.