“The Bitch is Back” by Elton John

"The Bitch Is Back" was the second single from Elton John's 1974 album Caribou, and the title came from home: Bernie Taupin's then-wife, Maxine Feibelman, used the phrase whenever Elton was in a foul mood. Taupin turned it into a lyric sending up Elton's own celebrity lifestyle, Elton wrote the music, and he later owned it as more or less his theme song.

It's a strutting hard rocker, and Gus Dudgeon produced it with the whole gang in: Davey Johnstone on electric guitar, Dee Murray on bass, Nigel Olsson on drums, Ray Cooper on tambourine, the Tower of Power horn section blasting away and Lenny Pickett on the tenor sax solo. Dusty Springfield sings backup alongside Clydie King, Sherlie Matthews and Jessie Smith. It went to number one in Canada, his sixth there, number four in the US and 15 in the UK.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.