I'm Still Standing



"I'm Still Standing" is a song by British rock musician Elton John, from his Platinum-certified 1983 album, Too Low for Zero.

John said this was "my reaction to still being relevant and successful in the early 1980s, post-Punk and with the New-Romantics creeping in."

Song
Helped in part by a video promoting the song on then-new MTV, "I'm Still Standing" became a big hit for John on both sides of the Atlantic, peaking at #1 in Canada and Switzerland, #4 in the UK, and #12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

Promotional video
The video, directed by Russell Mulcahy, was shot in Cannes (InterContinental Carlton Cannes) and Nice on the Côte d'Azur in France and features the colors of the French flag.

Bruno Tonioli, later a judge on the hit shows Strictly Come Dancing for BBC (UK) and its American adaptation, Dancing with the Stars for ABC in the US, appears as one of the dancers in the video.

It was due to be shot over the course of two days, but a camera full of the first day's film was ruined when Mulcahy accidentally fell into the sea with it. Therefore, it had to be filmed again on another day.

During the shoot for the video, John came across Duran Duran. He complained he was exhausted at having been up since 4 o'clock in the morning. Simon Le Bon decided John should have a martini. "So I did," John later recalled, "I had six."

In his book Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran, Andy Taylor talks of the experience:

"There were lots of celebrities around in Cannes and one day we discovered that Elton John was in town, filming the video for his song I'm Still Standing. This was before Elton became teetotal, so he was still a steaming party animal; we went up to see him at his hotel and spent the afternoon getting blasted on Martinis. We decided it would be a laugh to get him drunk and we were slinging the drinks down him 'Ooh, you are lovely boys,' he screeched, loving every minute of it. We got him so drunk that eventually he went upstairs and threw a wobbler in his suite. It caused all sorts of chaos – but it was a great party."

The next morning, John awoke with a hangover and wandered into his personal assistant's room—which was "leveled"—and asked him "What happened?" His assistant laughed: "You happened!"

Cover versions

 * Martha Wash covered the song on the soundtrack to The First Wives Club.
 * The song was featured in an episode of the short-lived TV musical series, Viva Laughlin, and performed by the character A.J, in the musical Love Shack.
 * The song was covered on Glee in the third-season episode "Big Brother" that aired 10 April 2012, as a duet by Dianna Agron and Kevin McHale. Blake Jenner covered this song as a last chance performance on season 2 of The Glee Project.
 * A ten-second-long novelty grindcore cover of the song appears on Anal Cunt's 1995 album, Top 40 Hits.
 * Fearless Vampire Killers perform a live cover
 * Taron Egerton performed the song, as his character Johnny, in the 2016 animated musical Sing and its soundtrack.

Live cover performances
The song has been covered four times on the UK version of The X Factor: by Lloyd Daniels in the sixth series, Wagner in the seventh series, Christopher Maloney in series 9 and Stevi Ritche in series 11. Diana DeGarmo and Naima Adedapo also performed the song in the third and tenth seasons of American Idol, respectively.

In other media
Through the 1980s and 1990s, City TV in Toronto used the song as the theme song for its talk/lifestyle show CityLine.

Track listing

 * US 7" single
 * 1) "I'm Still Standing" - 3:00
 * 2) "Love So Cold" - 5:08


 * UK 7" single
 * 1) "I'm Still Standing" - 3:00
 * 2) "Earn While You Learn" - 6:42
 * This single was also available as a picture disc shaped as a piano.


 * UK 12" single
 * 1) "I'm Still Standing" (extended version) – 3:45
 * 2) "Earn While You Learn" - 6:42

Personnel

 * Elton John – piano, synthesizer, vocals
 * Davey Johnstone – electric guitars, backing vocals
 * Dee Murray – bass guitar, backing vocals
 * Nigel Olsson – drums, backing vocals