Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)


"Empty Garden " is a song composed by Elton John and Bernie Taupin and originally performed by Elton John. The song first appeared on Elton John's 1982 album Jump Up!. The song is a tribute to John Lennon, who had been assassinated 15 months earlier.

Composition and background

Lennon and John were good friends, and in 1974, Lennon appeared on John's single cover of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", the B-side of which was Lennon's "One Day ". The pair later collaborated on "Whatever Gets You thru the Night", which appeared on Lennon's Walls and Bridges album. Lennon agreed to appear in concert with Elton if "Whatever Gets You thru the Night" became a #1 single, which it did. On Thanksgiving Day, 1974, Lennon and John performed these two songs along with "I Saw Her Standing There" at Madison Square Garden. This would be Lennon's last live performance. The song title "Empty Garden" may refer to the empty venue, or to the huge pile of flowers left behind by mourners outside the Dakota, Lennon's home in New York City, near the site where he was assassinated.
After Lennon's death, Elton was concerned that a tribute song to the late Beatle would be "clumsy" – until he saw Taupin's lyrics. The lyric "Can't you come out to play?" may refer to the Beatles's song "Dear Prudence", written by Lennon.
Elton John wrote and recorded an earlier instrumental tribute to Lennon, "The Man Who Never Died", which was issued as the B-side of "Nikita" in 1985 and eventually included as a bonus track on the remastered reissue of Ice on Fire.
The song is written using the chords of the E major scale.
The music video featured John playing his piano and singing the track in front of a replica of Lennon's apartment, where he was assassinated.

Live versions

Elton has rarely performed the song live, after the 1982 world tour, because it brings back many painful memories of Lennon's murder, as he once stated during a concert on November 5, 1999, at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin, and prior to that at a concert on October 9, 1988 at The Centrum in Worcester, Massachusetts. In the latter case, John played the song, as well as "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", in his third encore to mark what would have been Lennon's 48th birthday.
Notable performances include one at Madison Square Garden, with Lennon's widow Yoko and Elton's godson Sean in the audience in 1982. He also performed the song during his first appearance on the April 17, 1982 episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Johnny Cash.
In April 2013, John added the song to the setlist of The Million Dollar Piano, his residency show at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

Personnel

Three percussion instruments – namely castanets, maracas and tambourine – are audible, possibly overdubs from Jeff Porcaro or perhaps an uncredited percussionist.

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts