When I was a kid I thought, as many children do, the music my parents listened to was boring. My father would play The Moody Blues, Yes, the Beach Boys and ABBA and my mother- the Barenaked Ladies, Floyd, Enya, and Dido in her fire hydrant red Volkswagen.

I was a surefire by-product of the nineties.

When I reminisce of the music I grew up with, first and foremost I think fondly of my parents. It wasn’t truly until I grew much older that I began to understand the value in diverse listening, as the same goes for many. And yes, as my younger brother still jokes with me, even to Enya.

I’m for certain there are a few songs with impact and memories each and every being on this Earth will never forget.

Their choruses so deeply engrained in the memories of one’s childhood, that if they heard them again for the first time in years they would still know every word as if it were just yesterday they heard the song for the first time.

Music is special because it takes us to a time and place.

The very first time I heard Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” I was my father’s car, it was nearing nighttime and we were heading home from the airport. The windows were down and I remember sticking my hand out the window. I was probably six or seven at most at the time but I knew I had learned something incredible that day. The ever so slight pressure of the air as it hit your hand when you tried to move it back and forth through the car’s propelled wind felt really nice.

I didn’t know the words to “Tiny Dancer”, in fact, I wouldn’t learn the words for a long time after that, but it didn’t matter.

Hearing that track today takes me back to that feeling. It takes me to the memory of being in the car, just my dad and I. Nothing else mattered but us spending time together, the wind in my hand, and the wind in my hair.

I think of the time before graduating high school, while living in California for a month, my friends and were driving along the coast and “Tiny Dancer” came on. I knew the words now and damn right you better believe everyone else on the road in earshot knew we did too.

I think of an ex-boyfriend who got pulled over while “Tiny Dancer” was playing while we were driving in Colorado, and how he jumped out of the car to yell at the woman who has brake-checked him, then assaulting her beside our car.

“Tiny Dancer” serves as a reminder that the more things change, the more they do really stay the same. 

I think of the little moments too, when I hear “Tiny Dancer”. How free it made me feel, how hopeful, and blissfully happy it still makes me feel.

I think of how so many memories I have in my life were made in a car. Moving through spaces, into new places, with both new and familiar faces.

Chances are you too have memories associated with “Tiny Dancer”, whether the first time you heard it was in the “Almost Famous” bus scene or you remember driving down the road with it playing alongside friends, family, or friends you consider family.

The newly released “Tiny Dancer” video emulates the human condition. We all want connection and we all want to be loved.

It’s really that simple.

Driving in the car has always reminded me of this. Perhaps it’s because I think of the time I first discovered the impact that little things can have on us in life, like the sensation of car wind against your hand or the first time I felt free, like anything was possible.

It doesn’t matter that it took 45 years for the video for “Tiny Dancer” to be released.

In fact, I couldn’t imagine a better time to release this depiction of our nation and a multicultural ode to music than what “Tiny Dancer” managed to emulate.

“Tiny Dancer” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival alongside two additional brand new Elton John music videos – an animated visual for “Rocket Man” by Majid Adin and a choreographed dance performance set to “Bennie and the Jets” by Jack Whiteley and Laura Brownhill.

The video is full of characters including blue jeans babies, beauty queens, police officers, street performers, stoner teens, vaping pawn store grandmas, valets taking cars for a spin, mothers breastfeeding their babies, and Marilyn Manson singing to a snake, and everyone’s connected by one simple thing- music. “Tiny Dancer” plays in the background of every car in every scene, the good and the bad.

Because at the end of the day we all just want the same things.

No matter who we are. 

WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW:

HOLD ME CLOSER TINY DANCER

COUNT THE HEADLIGHTS ON THE HIGHWAY 

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