Sara Bareilles sang an old song by Elton John called “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” in a brand-new way, and it’s amazing! She performed it at The Kennedy Center in 2024, starting with a slow, spooky piano part. Then her beautiful voice came in, making the song feel sad at first, like a rainy day. But when the chorus started, it turned happy, like the sun popping out from behind the clouds.
The National Symphony Orchestra played along with her, using instruments like flutes and violins. They helped the song go from dark and quiet to bright and cheerful. It’s really special when a singer can take a famous song everyone knows and make it feel different and new. If you listen around three minutes into the song, Sara hits some super high notes that make the ending big and exciting!
PBS put Sara’s version of the song online on December 30, 2024, and over a million people have watched it already. Fans loved it and wrote things like, “This is so perfect!” and “Her voice is incredible—she makes this hard song sound easy. She’s one of a kind!” People can’t stop talking about how great she is.
Sara has done lots of awesome live shows before. One time, she sang her own song “Gravity” all by herself with just a piano at The Warfield in San Francisco. After about two and a half minutes, the crowd started singing with her, and it sounded so pretty. Then, after three minutes and twenty seconds, she sang some really high notes that were just stunning. She’s an amazing singer!
Elton John first made “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” a hit on September 7, 1973. He wrote the music, and his friend Bernie Taupin wrote the words. It’s one of Elton’s best songs ever—some people even say it’s his very best! A famous music magazine called Rolling Stone put it on a list of the 500 greatest songs, at number 390. It sold tons of copies in the United States and the United Kingdom, and fans still love it today. On Spotify, it’s one of Elton’s top 10 songs, with 486 million listens. Sara’s new version shows how special this song can still be!
