It's well known that Elton and Bernie spent their formative years trying to write hits for other artists, while trying to find their own voice. This episode tells the story of Elton and Bernie's early years through the prism of those early cover versions.

Included are the 'surprise' number 3 hit in New Zealand in 1969, the song on the US Top 10 Gold album that gave them the breathing space they needed as they went about planning the second album, and the cover by a fellow songwriter, 50 years ago this week, that gave them the encouragement to carry on through a very dark period. 

This episode is backed with a major bit of work - all of the early covers from English-speaking territories have been documented, with all possible internet links (e.g. to YouTube, discogs and 45cat) gathered. Additionally, for each of the 39 covers, an attempt has been made to answer the question 'how did they find out about Elton's music?'

The research has been summarised in this pdf, or alternatively here on this webpage. This document is designed as a guide to accompany this episode and future episodes on this topic.

A couple of recordings are included for the first time on the internet in this episode, namely Guy Darrell's Skyline Pigeon, and Lew Rich's Taking the Sun from My Eyes, which is included in full in the episode, courtesy of David Bodoh, of eltonography.com. 

The Roger Cook interview is taken from the Strange Brew podcast.