"Island Girl" is a 1975 song by English musician

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

. It was written by John and his songwriting collaborator

Bernie Taupin Bernard John Taupin (born 22 May 1950) is an English lyricist and visual artist. He is best known for his songwriting partnership with Elton John, recognised as one of the most successful partnerships of its kind in history. Taupin co-wrote th ...

and released as the first single from the album ''

Rock of the Westies ''Rock of the Westies'' is the tenth studio album by English musician Elton John. It was released on 24 October 1975, through DJM Records in the UK and MCA Records in the US. Produced by Gus Dudgeon, the record was recorded in the summer of 19 ...

'' (1975). It reached number one for three weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the U.S. (John's final No. 1 single as a solo artist for 22 years), selling over one million copies. It also reached the top five in Canada and New Zealand, as well as the top twenty in Australia and the UK. John has not performed the song since 1990. While no official reason has been given, Andy Greene of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' surmises it is due in part to controversial lyrics about a Jamaican prostitute in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and a Jamaican man who wants to take her back to

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

Background

The single's B-side was "Sugar on the Floor", written by

Kiki Dee Pauline Matthews (born 6 March 1947), better known by her stage name Kiki Dee, is an English pop singer. Known for her blue-eyed soul vocals, she was the first female singer from the UK to sign with Motown's Tamla Records. Dee is best known f ...

, who would go on to duet with John on a number of occasions, most notably on their chart-topping 1976 single, "

Don't Go Breaking My Heart "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" is a duet by English musician Elton John and English singer Kiki Dee, released by The Rocket Record Company on 25 June 1976. It was written by John with Bernie Taupin under the pseudonyms "Ann Orson" and "Carte B ...

Personnel

Ray Cooper Raymond Cooper (born 19 September 1947) is an English musician who has worked as a session and road-tour percussionist. During his career, Cooper has worked and toured with numerous musically diverse bands and artists including Elton John (as ...

–

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest ...

s, tambourine,

marimba The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...

– backing vocals *

James Newton Howard James Newton Howard (born June 9, 1951) is an American film composer, orchestrator and music producer. He has scored over 100 films and is the recipient of a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, and nine nominations for Academy Awards. His film scores ...

–

ARP synthesizer ARP Instruments, Inc. was a Lexington, Massachusetts manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, founded by Alan R. Pearlman, Alan Robert Pearlman in 1969. It created a popular and commercially successful range of synthesizers throughout the ...

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

solo *

Davey Johnstone David William Logan Johnstone (born 6 May 1951) is a Scottish rock guitarist and vocalist, best known for his long-time collaboration with Elton John as a member of the Elton John Band. Career Johnstone was born in Edinburgh. At the age of s ...

–

Ovation guitar The Ovation Guitar Company is a manufacturer of string instruments. Ovation primarily manufactures steel-string acoustic guitars (both 6 and 12-string versions) and nylon-string guitars, often with pickups for electric amplification. In 2015, i ...

, slide electric guitars,

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

, backing vocals *

– piano, lead vocal, backing vocals (credited as "Ann Orson") *

Kenny Passarelli Kenny Passarelli (born October 28, 1949) is an American bass guitarist. Passarelli was a founding member of the Joe Walsh-led band Barnstorm, co-writing the hit "Rocky Mountain Way". He later served as a contract player for a number of other ...

– bass, backing vocals * Roger Pope – drums *

Caleb Quaye Caleb Quaye (born 9 October 1948) is an English rock guitarist and studio musician best known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s with Elton John, Mick Jagger, Pete Townshend, Paul McCartney, Hall & Oates and Ralph McTell, and also toured w ...

– acoustic guitar, backing vocals

Release

The song entered the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on 11 October 1975 at number 49, and reaching the top in four weeks. The week of 4 October 1975, the week before the "Island Girl" entered the charts, marked the first week in over two years in which Elton John did not have a single on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

''s "Inside Track" column reported it as follows: "This week is the first time since August 1973 that Elton John hasn't had a single on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. If

Rocket A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

had shipped the upcoming 'Island Girl' a few days earlier, Elton would still be in the running to beat

Pat Boone Patrick Charles Eugene Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, author, television personality, radio host and philanthropist. He sold nearly 50 million records, had 38 Top 40 hits, and has acted in many films. Boone ...

's all-time record of just over four years on the charts." The song which "Island Girl" replaced at number one was " Bad Blood", by

Neil Sedaka Neil Sedaka (; born March 13, 1939) is an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Since his music career began in 1957, he has sold millions of records worldwide and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collabo ...

. Elton had provided uncredited backing and duetting vocals on this collaboration. Upon the single release, ''

Record World ''Record World'' magazine was one of three major weekly music industry trade magazines in the United States, with ''Billboard'' and '' Cashbox''. It was founded in 1946 as ''Music Vendor''. In 1964, it was changed to ''Record World'' under the ...

'' said "Tropically splendid Elton and Bernie entering the RW charts at 42 this week...need we say more?"

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

* {{authority control 1975 singles 1975 songs Elton John songs Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Cashbox number-one singles Songs with music by Elton John Songs with lyrics by Bernie Taupin Song recordings produced by Gus Dudgeon MCA Records singles DJM Records singles Songs about prostitutes Songs about islands Songs about New York City Obscenity controversies in music