"Face to Face" is a song by British singer-songwriter

Gary Barlow Gary Barlow (born 20 January 1971) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and television personality. He is the lead singer of the British pop group Take That. Barlow is one of the United Kingdom's most successful songwriters, havi ...

featuring Sir

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

. It was released in the United Kingdom on 20 January 2014 as the second single from his fourth solo album, ''

Since I Saw You Last ''Since I Saw You Last'' is the fourth solo studio album released by British singer-songwriter Gary Barlow. The album was released by Polydor Records on 22 November 2013 in Ireland, and on 25 November in the United Kingdom. It debuted at number ...

'' (2013). It was written by Barlow and

John Shanks John Matthew Shanks (born December 18, 1964) is an American songwriter, record producer and guitarist. Early life and education John Matthew Shanks was born in New York City. Shanks moved to Los Angeles when he was 17 years old. He was in a ban ...

, and it was produced by

Steve Power Steve Power (born in Liverpool) is an English record producer best known for his work with Robbie Williams. He has produced and mixed a wide variety of artists over the years, including Blur, Busted, Andrea Bocelli, Feeder, Joe Cocker,Perciv ...

Background

When writing ''

'', Barlow came up with a song called "Face to Face", and knew straight away that he wanted to try to get his friend Sir

to sing it with him. Barlow says: "I called him and said I am going to email you this song. Literally, within an hour he was back saying let’s book a studio, let’s get in there and do it." They both met up in

Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music c ...

and recorded the vocals to the song in 10 minutes. When speaking about the meaning behind the song, Barlow states that "Face to Face" is a thank-you note to Elton for sticking by him during his wilderness years and a pointed rejoinder to those who deserted him. "It’s a respect song" Barlow confirms. "I can count on the fingers of one hand the people who kept in touch with me when nobody else wanted to know me and he was one of them. I’ll never forget that."

Music video

The video was filmed in

on the same day as both Barlow and Elton John recorded the vocals to the song. The video shows Barlow passing the lyrics to Elton with both singing the song to each other around a piano and in the vocal booths.

Track listing

*;CD promo single # "Face to Face" (album version) – 3:33 # "Face to Face" (instrumental version) – 3:34

Credits and personnel

– songwriter, vocals, piano, additional keyboards, backing vocals *

– songwriter, backing vocals *

– vocals *

– producer *Mark "Spike" Stent – mixer *Ryan Carline – engineer, additional keyboards, programming *Rohan Onraet – engineer, percussion, programming *Richard Lancaster – engineer *Tim van der Kuil – guitar *Dave Bronze – bass *Jeremy Stacey – drums *David Catlin-Birch – backing vocals *Nick Ingman – string arrangement *Perry Montague-Mason – string leader *Isobel Griffiths – musicians' contractor *Tony Cousins – mastering Credits adapted from ''Since I Saw You Last'' liner notes.

Charts

References

{{authority control 2014 singles Gary Barlow songs Songs written by Gary Barlow 2013 songs Songs written by John Shanks Song recordings produced by Steve Power Polydor Records singles