"Song for Guy" is a song by pop rock artist Elton John, released in late 1978 as part of his twelfth album titled "A Single Man". "Song for Guy" is one of Elton John’s best and well known compositions.
The track was recorded on August 20th 1978.
Being the last track from the album, it is also almost completely instrumental, featuring an octaved solo piano for the intro. Continuing with percussion elements and added wind chimes, as well as synthesizers, the only lyrics from the song show at the end, when the verse "Life isn’t everything" gets sung several times.
Written by Elton John on his own, he said that the inspiration for the song came as he had an out-of-body experience, when he became obsessed with the ideas of life and death. The title of the song was given in memorial of a teenager that died riding his motorcycle, named Guy Burchett.
The "Song for Guy" song is dedicated to Guy Burchett and has a length of six minutes and thirty-four seconds, except the single version, in which is cut one and a half minutes of the song.
Guy Burchett was the messenger of his company, a seventeen years old boy killed in a motorcycle accident. In an interview, Elton John had confessed that he wrote the song in one night he felt depressed, when he imagined himself standing out of his body, being dead. The next day, after that he heard about Guy Burchett’s death and he named the song "Song for Guy".
The song starts with solo piano. During the instrumental piece is repeated on single line "Life isn’t everything". The track was made with the collaboration between Elton John, playing piano and vocal, Ray Cooper and Clive Franks.
The piano sheet music of "Song for Guy" is composed is the originally key of C major, but it can be transposed to many other keys as well. "Song for Guy" sheet music for piano is ranged for C4-B4.
The song is well known in Europe. Also it reached popularity in U.K. charts where it reached No. 4 in January 1979. It stayed on that spot in the charts for ten weeks.
"Song for Guy" has scores for piano, vocal and guitar. In U.S. the song was release on March 1979, four months later after the U.K. release. In United States the song had a moderate success, for sure not the same as in U.K.
The song has been used on an episode of "Diamonds in the Sky", a TV show on BBC, also getting featured on the 80s Disney film "Oh Heavenly Dog". The team involved in producing the song, besides John himself, were Ray Cooper, who was in charge of the wind chimes and shakers, and bassist Clive Franks.
"Song for Guy" has become a classical song, being also included in the easy listening genre. Featured as the closing song for his acclaimed album, this song can now be played by piano lovers, thanks to the free piano sheet listed below. Enjoy and keep an eye on us for more quality material.
