Bernie Taupin’s first wife is set to make at least $1.3 million auctioning handwritten lyrics to classic songs he wrote with Elton John.
These include the first draft of the hit Candle in the Wind, a version of which was sung at Princess Diana ‘s funeral in September 1997, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Bennie and the Jets.
Maxine Taupin, who is from Los Angeles, was married to Taupin from 1971 to 1976 and was the famous ‘seamstress for the band’ and inspiration for Tiny Dancer.
The highly anticipated LA auction also includes the original lyrics for Your Song, Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting and The Border Song.
Ms Taupin said she could not remember how she wound up with the valuable lyrics after her divorce.
‘You don’t just normally sit in a room and divide things up, but it might have happened like that,’ she said. ‘I don’t really remember the moment. But some of them were framed on a wall in my home and other ones were in a bank vault, perfectly preserved.’ Ms Taupin said she was always amazed by how ‘prolific’ her ex-husband’s lyrics were. ‘When I heard the finished songs, I was instantly transported to that magical place these two creative forces have been taking us all to for so many years,’ she said in the Rolling Stone interview.
Born in 1952, her romance, and marriage at 19, to the songwriter and their subsequent break-up was a key inspiration behind many of the songs the singer-songwriter duo produced.
Sir Elton’s 1971 hit Tiny Dancer was one of those songs. It referred to her as the ‘seamstress’ in the band - a reference perhaps to her sewing patches onto his denim clothes.
‘They played it for me in the studio with Elton on one side of me and Bernie on the other,’ she told the music magazine. ‘I was totally blown away when Bernie said, “I wrote this for you.” It’s a moment I’ll never forget.’
She told Rolling Stone she had not spoken to her ex-husband in many years and she last saw Sir Elton in concert when he played at Radio City Music Hall in 2004.
-dailymail.co.uk