All Quiet on the Western Front (song)
| "All Quiet on the Western Front" | ||||||||||
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| Single by Elton John | ||||||||||
| from the album Jump Up! | ||||||||||
| B-side |
"Where Have All the Good Times Gone" (Alternate Version) | |||||||||
| Released | November, 1982 | |||||||||
| Genre | Soft rock, symphonic rock | |||||||||
| Length | 6:00 | |||||||||
| Label |
Geffen (US) Rocket (UK) | |||||||||
| Writer(s) | Elton John, Bernie Taupin | |||||||||
| Producer(s) | Chris Thomas | |||||||||
| Elton John singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"All Quiet on the Western Front" is a song by Elton John with lyrics by Bernie Taupin. It is the closing track of his 1982 album, Jump Up!. It was also released as a single in the U.K. without charting.
The song is basically about World War I, and could easily have been influenced by the book of the same name. The song also ends in a big orchestral finale including a church organ chord sequence played by James Newton-Howard on a synthesizer, which could be reminiscent of his earlier album closers such as "The King Must Die" and "Burn Down the Mission". In the sleeve notes of the compilation album Elton John Song Book, the then recent Falkands Conflict was cited as a major influence for the song being written.
The song's only live performances came during John's world tour during 1982. At a concert on Christmas Eve, 1982 at the Hammersmith Apollo, London, John announced that, at the time, it was "the worst-selling single in Phonogram's history".
