Longtime Elton John drummer Nigel Olsson celebrates his 72nd birthday today (February 10th). On the 1973 album Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only the Piano Player The instruments were laid down live, and you can hear Elton’s “morning voice” on the track due to an early vocal session. In 1973, Elton John released three records’ worth of new material — Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player and the double Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album, both of which went to number-one. Drummer Nigel Olsson says that one reason they were so prolific is that the band, Elton and lyricist Bernie Taupin had reached a creative peak where they could complete a song like “Daniel” in just a matter of minutes.”
“There’s lots of tracks that I can remember doing first takes of. Like ‘Candle in the Wind’ was first take. ‘Daniel’ was written, rehearsed and recorded in about 20 minutes. It was just magic, you know, because we were all on the same wavelength at that stage.
