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Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: Miguel & Wale - "Bennie & The Jets" (Elton John)


Miguel has unleashed his own unique rendition of Elton John's classic Glam-Rock romp "Bennie & The Jets," which kinda sounds like a modern day version of Sly & The Family Stone. It's one of nine meticulously re-recorded super deluxe edition covers set to appear on the 40th anniversary edition of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Miguel manages to keep John's original piano melody intact, while inter-splicing an Electro-Hip-Hop, almost Space-Funk-leaning backing groove. About half-way through "Bennie & The Jets," you can year Maybach Music Group veteran rapper Wale, who sounds a little bit more displaced than Miguel. Sir Reginald Dwight himself recently told Rolling Stone that Miguel & Wale's updated version "really makes the best of what the song is all about. And it's an unusual song. it's not what I think is a hit record, but then that's probably why it was a hit record, because it didn't sound like anything else before." Noisey feature writer Skinny Friedman additionally notes that at it's core, "'Bennie & The Jets" started as a Rock song a few kick drums away from being Reggae, made by a man who insisted on wearing prescription glasses, despite having perfect vision, strictly for SWAG purposes." While Elton John further revealed that he wouldn't mind working with a couple seasoned Hip-Hop producers like Kanye or Pharrell on his next album, Biz Markie and the Beastie Boys previously recorded an interesting non-album "Bennie & The Jets" cover (1999). Goodbye Yellow Brick Road will feature a full second disc re-interpretation with contributions from Ed Sheeran, The Band Perry, John Grant, Fall Out Boy, Zach Brown Band, Emeli Sandé, and more talented perfromers; a re-mastered 40th anniversary edition of the chart-topping album will see a proper state-side release this upcoming Tuesday, March 25th.