Kiki Dee

Released: July 15, 1973

Songwriter: Bernie Taupin Elton John

Producer: Elton John Clive Franks

Me and Lonnie thumbed down a Cadillac
Outside Laredo in the heat of the sun
The driver was tanned and he looked like a salesman
We were just children on the run

He talked real funny like we'd never heard
Must have been foreign I guess
And I felt like an actress in an old movie
As Lonnie and I drove west

We were saying goodbye to the ones left behind
Hello to the ones up ahead
Lonnie and me were just drumming our knees
While the radio D.J. said

Keep your eyes open for Lonnie and Josie
Sixteen and fourteen, playing hooky from school
Last seen they were walking the road by the courtroom
Downtown Laredo at a quarter past two

Our friend in the front seat turned around and smiled
Grinning and shaking his head
Asked us politely where we were going
Where the sand turns to sea on the coast, I said

We were crossing the border just out of Texas
Passed the last dusty abandoned old farm
With the AM playing the songs of Sinatra
And Lonnie sleeping in my arms

Pauline Matthews better known as Kiki Dee, is an English singer.

She kicked around Britain as a white soul singer for the better part of the late ‘60s and early '70s – even becoming the first British Caucasian signed to Motown – before hooking up with Elton John, who signed her to his Rocket Records label and produced her first notable hit, “I’ve Got the Music in Me.”

In 1976, at which time John was the biggest pop star in the world, he wrote and duetted with Dee on the single “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” which promptly topped the charts all over the world. It did not, however, make Dee a long-term star, though she scored a couple of subsequent hits in England and turned to the stage with some success, especially by starring in Blood Brothers in the West End.

more tracks from the album

Loving & Free

From the album

Loving & Free (1973)

Kiki Dee popular songs

Lonnie and JosieKiki Dee

Kiki Dee

Loving & Free