Songfacts®:

• Eric Clapton played guitar and shared lead vocal duties with Elton John on this song. The lyric was written by Bernie Taupin, but it relates to both singers, who both felt like they were on a runaway train throughout decades of drug and alcohol addiction, but were now sober and getting their lives together.
  
  Elton got sober after checking himself into a rehab facility in 1990 and then taking the next year off to focus on his physical and mental health. Clapton got sober in 1987 after the birth of his son, Conor. When he recorded this song with Elton, he was still reeling from the death of Conor, who fell out of the window of a high-rise building in New York City on March 20, 1991.
• Elton John and Eric Clapton were good friends and had performed together on several occasions, including on June 30, 1990 at Knebworth Park in England along with Mark Knopfler. In 1991, Clapton recorded "Border Song" for the tribute album Two Rooms. "Runaway Train" is their only duet.
• "Runaway Train" first appeared on the soundtrack of the 1992 movie Lethal Weapon 3. In the film it plays under the end credits.
• This was released as the second single from Elton's album The One, following the title track. Despite its star power, the song didn't chart in America and made just #31 in the UK.
• The Swedish drummer and percussionist Olle Romo, who had previously worked with Eurythmics, has a writing credit on this song and also played on it. It's the only song on the album not credited to just Elton John and Bernie Taupin.
• After the album was released in the summer of 1992, Elton John and Eric Clapton toured together, but didn't always play "Runaway Train." When they did, it was with Eric coming on stage to perform it during Elton's set.
• Elton plays the organ solo on the recorded version of "Runaway Train." When he performed it live in concert, his then-keyboardist, Guy Babylon, did the honors.