Kate Bush has always seemed to come from a slightly different planet than everyone else in pop music, so it makes sense that she would gravitate toward a song like Elton John’s “Rocket Man.” Released in 1972, the track clearly stayed with her from the moment she first bought it as a single. Bush later said she could not stop playing it, calling it one of her favorite songs ever and admitting she was fascinated by the fact that Elton was a piano player while most major artists around him were guitarists.
That early obsession matters because it helps explain why Bush’s own career moved in such a singular direction. She was only 13 when she first heard “Rocket Man,” but within a few years she had become one of the most distinctive piano-led artists in British music, building a run of songs that felt imaginative, theatrical, and deeply personal in the same way John’s music had felt to her.
The cover that eventually came out in 1989 arrived through Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin, a tribute collection assembled around John and Taupin’s songwriting partnership. The album brought together a wide cast of artists, with The Beach Boys tackling “Crocodile Rock,” Joe Cocker taking on “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word,” Rod Stewart covering “Your Song,” and Tina Turner delivering “The Bitch Is Back.” Bush was invited to contribute, and she knew exactly which track she wanted to sing.
Bush said the label gave her full creative freedom, which gave her room to reshape the song instead of simply imitating the original. She described the process as exciting, even if it was a little intimidating to be handed one of her favorite songs. Her answer was to transform “Rocket Man” into something unexpected: a reggae-leaning version that pushed the song away from its original orbit while still keeping its sense of lift and distance.
That decision gave the track a light, floating quality that suited the lyrics about drifting through space. The arrangement was built around Bush’s own production style, and while the article notes that her piano is basically absent, her keyboard work still runs through the song’s texture. The result feels less like a conventional cover and more like a total reimagining, one that makes the song feel weightless in a way that fits its subject perfectly.
The accompanying video adds another layer of odd charm. Although it was filmed earlier, it was not released until 2019, and in it Bush can be seen miming a ukulele part, a detail that only makes the performance feel even more playful and offbeat. It is not the most obvious instrument choice for Elton John, reggae, or Kate Bush, but that is exactly why it works in her world.
Bush’s version of “Rocket Man” went on to serve as the lead single from Two Rooms and reached No. 12 on the charts. Decades later, the connection came full circle when Elton John appeared on Bush’s 50 Words for Snow, singing with her on “Snowed in at Wheeler Street.” Her most recent public appearance, according to the article, came in 2014 at John’s wedding to David Furnish, which gives the story an unusually neat sense of closure.
What stands out most is how naturally Bush’s cover fits her artistic identity. She did not simply record a favorite song. She treated it like a piece of living material, something she could reshape, stretch, and send into a different atmosphere entirely. That is what made Kate Bush special in the first place, and it is exactly why her “Rocket Man” still feels like more than a tribute. It feels like Kate Bush making someone else’s classic unmistakably her own.
