Elton John says he’ll do a record like “Cold Heart” or “Hold Me Closer” “every year”

Interscope

Last year, Elton John scored a global hit with Dua Lipa with “Cold Heart” — a mashup of four of his old songs. Now, he’s poised to have another one with “Hold Me Closer,” a mashup of three of his old songs featuring Britney Spears. And Elton promises that the hits will keep on coming.

“I want to do one every year for a fun, happy summer record,” Elton tells The Guardian newspaper. He certainly has enough old songs to do it, and there are enough young artists who’d probably jump at the chance.

“I’m Uncle Elton,” says the Rocket Man, who loves to advise young musicians who may be struggling with the pressures of fame. In Britney’s case, Elton says of her journey to escape her 13-year conservatorship, “You forget she was the biggest star in the whole world at that time. And to see what happened to her makes me so angry. What happened to her shouldn’t have happened to anybody.”

Now that the song is on its way to being a hit, Elton says, “I’m just crossing my fingers that this will restore her confidence in herself to get back into the studio, make more records, and realize that she is bloody good.”

According to the song’s producer, Andrew Watt, Britney was plenty confident when she came to his L.A. studio to record her vocals. “She was so prepared…she’s so good at knowing when she got the right take. She took complete control,” he raves, noting, “She’s an expert in music to make you dance…she’s so pro.”

Britney’s attorney, Mathew Rosengart, who extracted her from her conservatorship, tells ABC News in a statement, “No one should be surprised that her first [post-conservatorship] foray is a smash success…Britney is a brilliant artist and iconic woman.”

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