Recorded between August 1979 and March 1980 and produced by John and Clive Franks, the song first appeared much later on the 1981 album The Fox.
[2] Though no gender is mentioned in the lyrics, the video for the song shows a schoolboy with a crush on an older boy.
The spare arrangement consists entirely of John's piano and voice and "string" synthesizers programmed and played by James Newton Howard.
According to Tom Robinson, Elton had the plot based on a subplot from the Lindsay Anderson movie if.....[4] The music video presented a very clear interpretation of this song, showing a schoolboy pining for a slightly older and very athletic straight male classmate.
The story line was written by Keith Williams on an idea supplied by Elton John himself who wanted a mini-movie made from the song without him necessarily having to appear/perform in it - a radical step in 1981 music videos.