The Bitch Is Back

Elton is the "Bitch." One day when he was in a foul mood, complaining about anything and everything, Bernie Taupin's wife, Maxine, saw him and said "Uh-Oh, the bitch is back." Bernie Taupin writes Elton's lyrics and thought it was a great phrase. He wrote lyrics around it and Elton put it to music.

A lot of radio stations refused to play this because it said "bitch." When it became a hit, a lot of these stations began playing it, but some aired an edited version with the word "bitch" blanked out. This version sounded really dumb because the word is repeated over and over.

Elton: "It is kind of my theme song."

Tower of Power supplied the horns. They are a popular R&B group who did very well in the early '70s with hits like "You're Still A Young Man" and "So Very Hard To Go." Their horn section has played on albums by Santana, Little Feat, Rod Stewart, America, Huey Lewis and many others. Founding member Emilio Castillo told us:
"This is what we do, it's like sweat. It's what we do naturally and the thing that makes us so special. There aren't a lot of horn sections in the world, certainly not a lot of horn sections that have been together doing it as long as we have, that play a signature style like we do. We have a definite style to the way we approach section work, we clip our notes, we get very tight, we've got to have this ESP going between the guys as far as how to interpret certain horn licks." (Check out our interview with Emilio Castillo. You can learn much more at his website, towerofpower.com.)

Elton recorded the album in the mountains of Colorado at the Caribou studios owned by Jim Guercio, who was famous for his work with the bands Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago. The album was named after the studio.

They finished the album in about a week because Elton and his band had to leave for a tour.

When Hillary Clinton went to bookstores to promote her autobiography in 2003, a conservative group called The Free Republic staged "audio protests" by playing this and other unflattering songs at her signings.

Elton John performed this with Rihanna at the 3rd annual Fashion Rocks Concert in 2006. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)