Elton John didn't recall writing this '60s song, until a former bandmate gifted him the demo

In the late '60s, before Elton John officially became Elton John, immortal pop-rock superstar and one of music’s best-selling artists, he was simply Reginald Dwight: a young songwriter searching for his musical identity. During that pre-fame era, he was briefly bandmates with Derek Shulman in the psychedelic soul group Simon Dupree and the Big Sound. And while they lost touch over the years, the pair reconnected decades later through a kind gesture: Shulman gifting John a demo recording of a song the latter forgot he’d ever written.

That friendship formed when then-Dwight filled in as a touring member of Simon Dupree. "Elton was Reg at the time, and the keyboard player in my first group was sick," Shulman told this writer in an interview for Ultimate Classic Rock. "He was recruited by our manager, and he loved playing with us. He's a real muso. We went to his house, and this was around the time when [lyricist Bernie Taupin] came down from Lincoln. This was literally the start of his Elton John period and career."

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Shulman and his bandmate/brother Ray were impressed with their talented fill-in keyboardist, even recording a version of his song "I’m Going Home." They also became close with Dwight/John, quietly telling him their idea to dissolve Simon Dupree and start a more progressive, adventurous new band. (They later did just that, forming one of prog’s most revered and experimental acts, Gentle Giant, in 1970.) The combination seemed perfect on paper, but their songwriting didn’t seem aligned.

"He loved that thought. He said, 'I’d love to discuss with you what you want to do. I've written some songs,'" Shulman said. "He played [future Elton John tracks] 'Your Song' and 'Skyline Pigeon.' And that was right when Bernie arrived in the living room of his house. We didn't say it, but we thought, 'This isn't really where we want to go,' and thank God for him! He said, 'I’m changing my name to Elton John,' and we said, 'Well, that won't work.' Of course, the year after, he became Elton John and became massive, and good for him. But we were there when he was doing his first album."

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They remained friendly, despite their collaboration not moving forward. "Lucky for him," Shulman added. "He was at the Troubadour becoming massive, and we were scrambling for gigs." After losing touch over a couple decades, Shulman eventually reached out, and they had a "fantastic" time catching up, gift included. "We recorded a couple songs in my first group that Elton wrote, and I had the demo in my closet of Elton singing the song 'I’m Going Home,'" he said. "[John had] forgotten about it. I gave it to him, and he didn't have it in his library…It was great to give him back a song that he'd forgotten he'd written."

"It was very funny that he'd forgotten he'd written that," he added of "I'm Going Home," which was included on the 2004 Simon Dupree compilation Part of My Past. The "piano demo" version was released on the deluxe edition of 1970's Elton John, the songwriter's second LP. (Shulman added that John "also played on a couple other [Simon Dupree] tracks that never came out as singles.")

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Though it would have been incredible to hear Elton John playing with Gentle Giant, a genre-blurring band that combined elements of hard rock, chamber music, funk, and medieval music, their divergence probably worked out best for everyone. It’s interesting, though, that John also had another "what if" prog-rock moment: nearly connecting with King Crimson for their second LP, during a time when they didn’t have a permanent singer. In the liner notes of their 1976 compilation A Young Person's Guide to King Crimson, bandleader Robert Fripp wrote, "Elton had been booked to sing all the songs on [In the Wake of Poseidon] for £250 as a session singer and as I wasn't familiar with his work, Mark Fenwick of E.G. [Records] gave me a copy of Elton's first album. But his style didn't seem right for Crimson, and the album was poor, so I canceled the sessions."

Again, after selling over 300 million albums throughout his career, it’s hard to imagine he has any regrets.