Elton John - The bitch is back (5/9/74)

[Debbie32352]

I love it.

[DOyleyPrincess]

I had my mom buy me this album at the age of 8.... Always have LOVED my ELTON! So many memories

[onyourkneesboy1]

loved annoying bitchy neighbors with this song! ;D

[Andy1Emcee]

Cool vintage Jimmy Saville and black and white Top Of The Pops

[Lisalikesclassic]

Had to listen to this before heading off to work and dealing with my bitchy co-worker

[123kcsee]

im a bitch and the bitch is back stone cold sober as a matter fact...wow..great...my fave back in 70s when i was a teen back in KL

[whimsicalocean]

he has not done anything great in years, but he was once awesome.

[patrick9648]

BBC had a bad habit of taping over shows because blank tapes were expensive back then. They would sometimes sell episodes to TV stations overseas. They copied the tapes to B/W film which was cheaper than videotape back then and the orginals were erased. Only the B/W copies survive on some of the shows. according to wikipedia.

[jhmoonman]

Great video!!!

[gratisboy121]

I think about this song every time i see my step mom

[genxxxersize]

Yeppers, I'm back baby's, but I prefer "I'm BAD, I'm nationwide by ZZ Top." ;o)

[ilovepoopooalot]

back to the days when you had a choice between black and white and color the good old days

[thevagirl2]

i really don't care if he's gay, he can sing his ass off! i have always loved Elton John! i listened to him when i was a teenager and i still listen to him even though i'm 49.

[MeBenHalpin]

Classic song from Elton.

[DaveWollenberg]

Sir Elton hit #4 in Billboard, 11-2-74. God bless ya, for postin' it. Thanx!

[cwilma1]

I'm not a bitch. I love you RAHM; don't you understand that?

[Andy1Emcee]

Elton John's best was his earliest; 1969 to the mid seventies. 1973 was his best year, with he and Bernie Taupin's masterpiece Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. His other greats of these years were Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player, Caribou, Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy, Honky Chateau, Madman Across The Water, Tumbleweed Connection, Elton John, Empty Sky. Rock Of The Westies is okay, but after the mid seventies, it wasn't the same. Elton John's absolute best came from these years.

[TheRonaldo666]

Did they hand pick good looking people for this show??

[pbmax]

Coolest motherfucker who ever sucked a dick

[bottledmagic]

hell yeah!

[IndianaParkWars]

2 people are bitches

[megawes5]

@IndianaParkWars Nope!! 4 now!! I'm number 4.....just to be a bitch!!! hahaha

[ysbaddaden2003]

I understand that Top of the Pops insisted the performers do nothing but lip-synch...

[MeravLovesKitties]

Oh ya. Song from my youth.

[sexeyeddie]

wow the best

[SRTKyle98]

best version eva

[SRTKyle98]

Its so close too the original only diff is his voice and the guitars are louder

[muskokan59]

This was Sept 05 1974? That was damn near my first day of high school......cool

[DaveWollenberg]

Hit #4 in the US (Billboard). How'd it do in the UK? God bless!

[peacemtn]

That's bitch to you Greg you wild and crazy guy lol

[MaxRenn]

gracious me gracious me

jimmy is the man

[hartlesslover21]

THE BITCH IS BACK XD XD XD XD XD XD

[welshbabe1949]

At 1min 51sec. you will see Bob Benham of the then Tremeloes as his guitarist.

[davidwebber]

This is great!

Elton and the band are playing to a re-mixed instrumental backing track. The guitar track is brought up, and Elton is singing live to his own harmonies. He sounded great back in '74!

[chase4609]

lol elton john is his bands name elton john is not his name it is reginald dwight

[rainstorm529]

yep. elton john is his band's name. i saw a show on him on palladia, and his name is reginald kenneth dwight. he has an awesome group name though. :)

[chase4609]

yup its pretty cool.

[JesZeu]

@rainstorm529 Actually, Reginald Kenneth Dwight legally changed his name to Elton John... Elton Hercules John, to be exact. How's that for name? I think the name of the band was (get this) the Elton John band. LOL. Of course, after 1998, he's SIR Elton John. :-)

[ferri8889]

eccezionale! questo è davvero unico, grande evanswho!!

[evanswho]

I agree, the 71 - 76 period was his best!

[tudorman64]

@evanswho Who was the left-handed guitarist in this video? It's not Davey Johnstone. He plays right-handed.

[Rabiddogge]

This is the Elton I love. I can't listen to any of his recent stuff.

[Khultan]

Same here. He doesn't rock anymore.

[teatonaz]

Well if he's mad, possibly it's cause I think he's having to lip sync the song. Just a guess but seems so,.. still a great song.

[dulcimerkj52]

I think this is the best performance of this song I've ever seen him do vocally

[VrgniaMailman]

Fabulous music, just great to see Elton in his really early days, and he sang wonderfully. Thanks very much, evanwho, for doing this!!! I have a question--to me, EJ seems borderline angry as he sings the song. As if he might get up and shove someone as soon as he was done. No smiles, no eye contact. Does anyone think he might have been irritated by having all the female teeny-boppers around him? I am not saying he was, just curious. Or am I imagining? Did he simply sang that way back then??

[wags2010]

he may have been irritated, but he usually seemed like he was enjoying himself in the early 70s, he may have been nervous with that being a tv broadcast and so many peices to the puzzle with the additional instruments all being there to play bitch is back he was probably wondering if it sounded alright. By then he was most likely accustomed to only playing with his band or by himself.

[princev11]

and 35 years later

hes the best! =)

[cass1957]

No, I just thught the sight of Elton eating elastic on a Saturday night would be amusing.

[cass1957]

That's O.K. then - he's invited me to dinner at his place on Saturday night. :-)

[cass1957]

Does Elton sing "I eat elastic on a Saturday night" in the second verse? :-)

[RocketIProductions]

No. He says "...even light steak on a Saturday night..."

[godwhyisthistaken]

come mon u brits make it color!

great performance? might of been in sync with the music, but watever elton rocks!

[ColeDiamond]

Nice post, evanswho.

[spookyphill]

the original 2 inch quad master video tape was wiped soon after transmission.however a black and film copy was made on 16mm.this is the version your viewing.

[davidgbarron]

Shortsightedness when it came to music for most of the 1970s on the BBC, has lost millions of pounds due to this. Kept OGWT outtakes, yet wiped performances of TOTP.

[ekimsnevets]

I would like to know who the lefty is playing guitar. Davey Johnstone plays righted handed in every other version I have seen of this song.

[MOSKII58]

just what i was thinking, this sounds like a synch track, its too close to the original,

[NYDanno85]

The music itself is the original track with some guitar overdubs. Sounds like the vocal is also unique from the album track - he either recorded it live or as an additional overdub, then lipsynched on TOTP.

[NYDanno85]

Whoops, missed the sax overdubs too. :)

[mwidunn]

I love how, even in the 70's, the Brits were still televising in B&W.

[GBCOne]

The show was in colour but I suspect no official copy exists other than this possibly privately recorded version. TOTP went colour a few years before this date.

[randyrhoads15]

this tune is cool i love it i can play it

[toothfairy666]

wonderful glam Elton, I used to dance to this. Reminds me of my time in Benidorm in 74 FABOLOSO

[Ben4810]

wow...Wow..& WOW..!!!

This is a gem, absolutely brilliant...

& we also get Saint James of Roundhay introducing & even a millisecond shot of Peters & Lee at the very start...auper stuff

[WhisperLady023]

This version really seems like the original version! amazing! Elton is great!

[Steffen2k7]

hehe nice clip!

[gdb11572]

Im shocked he was allowed to say bitch

[chazzwozer]

Got any other Elton Top Of The Pops clips?

[cassjoty42]

That is really cool!