Song for Guy

As I was writing this song one Sunday, I imagined myself floating into space and looking down at my own body. I was imagining myself dying. Morbidly obsessed with these thoughts, I wrote this song about death. The next day I was told that Guy [Burchett], our 17-year-old messenger boy, had been tragically killed on his motorcycle the day before. Guy died on the day I wrote this song.
— Elton John, from the sleeve notes of the 7-inch single.

The song opens with a solo piano, which is then accompanied by a looped Roland CR-78 drum machine,^[2] with occasional shaker and wind chimes alternating; other keyboards are often layered in shortly after, with a bass guitar mainly accompanying this. It is instrumental until the end, in which the words "Life isn't everything" are repeated.

It stands as one of the few pieces written by Elton John alone and the only instrumental he made and released as a single. His subsequent instrumentals were released only as B-sides, notably "Choc Ice Goes Mental" (A-sides: "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" and "Kiss the Bride") and "The Man Who Never Died" (A-sides: "Nikita" and "The Last Song").

Cash Box said it has "an alluring beauty", with "spunky piano chording, rhythm ace backing, evocative synthesizer explorations and chimes".^[3] Record World said it would surprise his fans as "an instrumental with traditional orchestral arrangements and John's own semi-classical piano work".^[4]

The song was one of his most successful singles in the UK, peaking at No. 4 in January 1979, and remaining on the chart for ten weeks.^[5] It marked his return to the Top Ten for the first time since 1976's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", which reached No. 1 on the same chart.^[6] The single was not released in the US until March 1979 where it barely made the charts, peaking at No. 110.^[7] It was a modest success, though, on the American adult contemporary charts, where it reached No. 37 in the spring of 1979.^[8]

The song was used extensively throughout all 6 episodes of the 1985 BBC comedy series Happy Families (the lead male character is named Guy). It is also used in the seventh episode of Diamonds in the Sky (1979), a BBC–Channel 9 Perth co-production about the history of commercial aviation, and is played frequently in the 1980 movie Oh Heavenly Dog starring Chevy Chase and Jane Seymour and directed by Rod Browning.^[9] The song also features prominently in the 2017 film Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool.^[10] In November 2020, the track was featured in The Crown, during a scene in which Lady Diana Spencer dances alone in a Buckingham Palace ballroom.

• Elton John – piano, Mellotron, Polymoog, ARP String Ensemble, vocals
• Ray Cooper – wind chimes, shakers
• Clive Franks – bass