When you think of artists who are well-suited to collaborate with Sir Elton John, Charlie Puth’s name should come to mind, and now, the pair are finally jumping on a track together.
On Wednesday (Sept. 22), John and Puth unveiled their brand-new duet “After All,” a gentle, glowing ballad about true love. The single comes ahead of John’s upcoming new project, The Lockdown Sessions, where the pop legend will offer up a series of duets and collaborations he recorded while stuck in quarantine for the last year and a half.
The new ballad sees Puth taking full reins on the production, with a grooving electric piano line and surging strings bringing emotional life to the tender ballad. As for songwriting, the pair share credit along with Jacob Kasher Hindlin, as they sing of a sweet love affair bringing hope back into their lives. “Oh, oh, nothing compares to you, oh no, baby,” the duo sings on their new song. “They were just doing it wrong/ I gave up on love until you made me believe in it after all.”
Both John and Puth said in a statement that they had always held admiration for the other, and that their collaboration was a long time coming. “Charlie is an amazing musician; we just hit it off. He’s become a friend and a friend of the family … He’s incredibly quick, Charlie. We just had an amazing chemistry in the studio,” John said of his co-star. Puth shared the sentiment, adding, “As a songwriter, I have admired and looked up to Elton John my entire life. It is truly incredible how the melodies and chords seem to come to him instantly whenever he sits down at the piano … He is world class and the true definition of a musical genius.”
The pair also sat down for an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to discuss the song, where they revealed that the song came together unbelievably fast. “The song is three minutes and five seconds. This man [Elton John] played the entire Rhodes part, the piano part, in three minutes and five seconds. We’re like, ‘OK, there’s your song,’” Puth said of the session. John jumped in and added, “He’s so brilliantly technical and he’s such a great musician. And I knew he was already, but he’s so quick. And I’m so quick, but it was just a Manna made from heaven, basically.”
The new single is the latest off of John’s The Lockdown Sessions, following his Dua Lipa collaboration ‘“Cold Heart.” The song marked John’s first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 in 21 years, before making record-breaking turns on both the Pop Airplay and Adult Contemporary charts.
Check out the new single from Elton John and Charlie Puth below:
