Littlemore and Pnau have a longstanding relationship with John, established after the pop icon first reached out to the band in Australia in 2007. In 2012, John gave the then duo (Sam Littlemore joined in 2016) free rein to his archives, resulting in the remix album Good Morning to the Night, which gave John his first UK No. 1 album in 22 years.
“He loved that album and what it did, but it didn’t really have any marketing outside the UK,” says Littlemore. “This time around, Elton was more interested in having a radio record.
“The directive [with Cold Heart] wasn’t so much to cut up his songs and do an Avalanches-style mash; it was more to focus on the vocals and add modernity and the Pnau sound through the synths and drums and the rest of it.”
After the huge success of John’s 2019 biopic Rocket Man introduced his music to a whole new generation, throwing Gen-Z disco diva Dua Lipa’s honeyed vocals over his songs would seem an obvious recipe for a hit.
And with its nostalgic layering, the song almost comes across as a Jive Bunny megamix or something straight out of UK subversives The KLF’s infamous The Manual, their cynical step-by-step guide on how to get a No. 1 hit (essentially, take an old song and put a beat behind it).
But it’s not so simple, laughs Littlemore. “We’ve tried to do follow-ups, and hopefully we’ve got some things coming, but it’s not a straight line to make a record like this.
“You’re given maybe a hundred a capellas, from all these different songs, and to get that puzzle right … You look at Bernie Taupin’s lyrics and they’re so rich, he weaves all kinds of tales, so putting different stories together, it’s a tricky thing. There was a lot of trial and error.
“But one day, Pete [Mayes] had a magical day. Everything lined up, the way they do sometimes, where it’s almost like you’re in the ley lines of synchronicity and everything you add or do is the right move.”
That the song defined a summer where Australia opened up after two years of pandemic-induced restrictions is another intriguing wrinkle for Littlemore. He thinks the track’s breezy vibe, an effortless sheen to its soulful “teardrops on the floor”-style yearning, propelled it this season.
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“There’s a real temperature to a summer song, and it’s often records that are a bit more sublime that catch on. There’s gotta be a kind of snap to it and a bit of swing, ’cause people are looser in the summer,” says Littlemore.
“With Pnau records we have a similar intent, which is a burst of positivity and joy; it’s celebratory. We essentially wanna lift people up, and I think this record has that in the way that the lyrics tell a tale and melodically, it rouses you.
“That’s all we really need right now in the world, these uplifting records. Obviously, the audience has responded to that feeling, and it’s amazing to be part of this energy.”
Top 20 songs of the summer 2022
1: Cold Heart (Pnau Remix), Elton John and Dua Lipa
2: Stay, The Kid Laroi & Justin Bieber
3: ABCDEFU, Gayle
4: Heat Waves, Glass Animals
5: Easy On Me, Adele
6: Bad Habits, Ed Sheeran
7: Shivers, Ed Sheeran
8: Do It To It, Acraze feat. Cherish
9: Industry Baby, Lil Nas X & Jack Harlow
10: Where Are You Now, Lost Frequencies & Calum Scott
11: Good 4 U, Olivia Rodrigo
12: Ghost, Justin Bieber
13: That’s What I Want, Lil Nas X
14: Kiss Me More, Doja Cat & SZA
15: Enemy, Imagine Dragons, JID & League of Legends
16: Levitating, Dua Lipa
17: All Too Well (Taylor’s Version), Taylor Swift
18: One Right Now, Post Malone & The Weeknd
19: Save Your Tears, The Weeknd
20: All I Want For Christmas is You, Mariah Carey
Source: ARIA; December 1, 2021 to February 24, 2022
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‘A force of nature’: What was this year’s official song of the summer?
Source: Philippines Alive
