"Your Song" was first released by American rock band Three Dog Night in March 1970 as an album track on It Ain't Easy.

Both sides received airplay, but "Your Song" was preferred by disc jockeys and replaced "Take Me to the Pilot" as the A-side, eventually making it to number eight on the Billboard chart.

According to Taupin, "I scribbled the lyric down on a lined notepad at the kitchen table of Elton's mother's apartment in the London suburb of Northwood Hills, breakfast time sometime in 1969.

"[8] The instrumental focus is on John's Leon Russell-influenced piano work, along with acoustic guitar, Paul Buckmaster's string accompaniment, and a shuffling rhythm section.

John sings a straightforward love-song lyric at the beginning: "It's a little bit funny this feeling inside / I'm not one of those who can easily hide / I don't have much money, but boy, if I did / I'd buy a big house where we both could live."

Writing in NME on its release, Derek Johnson wrote, "The song itself is glowing and strangely haunting, the scoring is smooth and delicate and the performance is symptomatic of a new era in pop idols.

In 2002, John re-recorded the song as a duet with Safina for the first Sport Relief charity telethon and released it on 15 July 2002; this version reached number four in the UK.

[17][18] In the US it was certified Gold and Platinum on 13 December 2012 by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over one million digital downloads.

On 20 October 2001, John performed the song with Billy Joel at The Concert for New York City, a tribute show to the September 11 attacks.

[60] Soul singer Billy Paul released a version of the song on Philadelphia International in 1972, as the B-side of "Me and Mrs. Jones", then in 1977, which reached number 37 on the UK Singles Chart and spent seven weeks in the top 75.

[63][64] In December 2021, it was reported that the original plan was for John to sing "Your Song" at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, but the final choice was "Candle in the Wind 1997".

English singer and songwriter Ellie Goulding covered "Your Song" for the reissue of her debut studio album, titled Bright Lights.

[75] Goulding performed "Your Song" at the reception party of Prince William and Catherine Middleton's wedding at Buckingham Palace on 29 April 2011, to which the couple shared their first dance.

[77] Goulding's version was featured at the end of the 29 July 2011 episode of the Syfy supernatural drama series Haven, titled "Love Machine".

[78] Nick Levine of Digital Spy gave the song four out of five stars, commenting that producer Lovett "shrouds her beautifully fluttery vocals in little but piano and strings, just adding a few harmonies towards the finish, allowing her to draw out the tenderness in Bernie Taupin's lyrics and the utter loveliness of one of Elton John's very best melodies.

[80] AllMusic critic Jon O'Brien, in his review for Bright Lights, called it "unimaginative" and felt that it "sounds out of place alongside the rest of her rather more adventurous material.

[82] In its third week, it climbed to its peak position of number two (behind The X Factor Finalists 2010's cover of David Bowie's "'Heroes'") on sales of 72,292 copies,[83] becoming Goulding's highest-peaking single until 2013.

[86] The single was certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 24 September 2021 and had sold 826,000 copies in the UK by August 2013.

[111] Gaga performed the song at The Recording Academy's tribute concert, titled "Elton John: I'm Still Standing – A Grammy Salute", which aired on CBS on 10 April 2018.