Elton John Samples Himself And Gets “Cold Heart,” His Biggest Hit in 21 Years, with Dua Lipa



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Why hasn’t anyone else thought of this?

Elton John has a smash hit with Dua Lipa, his first hit single in 21 years. The song is called “Cold Heart,” and it comes from Elton sampling himself, or interpolating.

Producer P’Nau took Elton’s 1989 single, “Sacrifice,” and mashed it up with his 1972 classic, “Rocket Man.” They retitled the song, “Cold Heart,” from the “Sacrifice” chorus. Elton sings from that song, Dua Lipa sings the refrain from “Rocket Man.”

The result is that “Cold Heart” has sold 40,000 copies in two weeks including streaming. Billboard just put it at number 81 on the new Hot 100. Radio is playing it. I actually heard it blaring from my neighbor’s apartment last week.

Whoever thought of this gets a prize. Now all legacy artists will start digging through their catalogs. Self-sampling will be a new thing!

And PS Elton John is always “in,” in every generation.

 

Author

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. He wrote the Intelligencer column for NY Magazine in the mid 90s, reporting on the OJ Simpson trial, as well as for the real Parade magazine (when it was owned by Conde Nast), and has written for the New York Observer, Details, Vogue, Spin, the New York Times, NY Post, Washington Post, and NY Daily News among many publications. He is the writer and co-producer of “Only the Strong Survive,” a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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