Elton coaxed Lennon back to performing

As those who attended his star-studded annual White Tie and Tiara ball June 29 well know, there are advantages to being Elton John.

The opportunity, for example, to work with a dizzyingly diverse range of performers — from RuPaul to Eminem, Guns N’ Roses to The Pet Shop Boys. Or to resurrect the career of a lost ex-Beatle.

Elton John was all-powerful in 1974. Hit after hit, released at a pace that made a mockery of reigning post-Dark Side of the Moon commercial wisdom. Soon, through his Rocket Records label, he would turn such unlikely also-rans as long-forgotten Brill Building veteran Neil Sedaka and session-singer Kiki Dee into stars.

What better time, then, to repay the musical influence of The Beatles?

Organizing a reunion was beyond even John’s persuasive powers. But escorting a troubled John Lennon, then in the midst of his infamous “long weekend,” back to the top of the charts seemed feasible. An invitation was extended to Lennon to record a funky new composition at John’s Caribou studios in Colorado.

It had been three uneven years since Lennon’s solo masterpiece Imagine, and now estranged from wife Yoko Ono the singer had been making headlines by drinking and drugging his way along Los Angeles’ Sunset strip in the company of a similarly adrift group of self-proclaimed Hollywood Vampires.

‘Wanna bet?’

Yet Lennon’s muse had not completely deserted him. And the song John chose to help whip him into shape, Whatever Gets You Thru the Night, seemed a likely candidate for a single. Indeed, John enthused, the upbeat duet sounded like a chart-topper.

“It would be nice,” Lennon told John. “But it’s not a No. 1.”

“Wanna bet?” was John’s reply; whereupon, the pair agreed that should it secure the former Beatle his first solo No. 1, he would perform it in concert with piano player and band. Lennon returned to L.A., feeling no immediate need to rehearse Whatever Gets You Thru the Night for his return to the stage.

Ah, but this was 1974 and Elton John was all-powerful. Besides, it was a pretty catchy song.

So it was that Nov. 28 Lennon mounted the stage to fulfil his half of the bet. The occasion was a sold-out Madison Square Garden concert by the Elton John Band (even Yoko was in the audience, unbeknownst to Lennon), and a nervous Lennon joined the group for a rendition of the single, plus the Beatles nuggets I Saw her Standing There and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

John had wanted Lennon to sing Imagine, but Lennon refused, saying he wanted only “to have some fun and play some rock and roll,” and not “to come on like Dean Martin, doing my classic hits.”

Yoko, Sean followed

Eight years later, John would welcome Yoko and son Sean Lennon to that same stage, following a performance of Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny), a tribute to a late pal and collaborator.

That single, of course, had also reached No. 1.

(Lennon’s Madison Square Garden performance can be heard in its entirety on the expanded CD version of John’s live album Here and There.)

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