Elton John’s First Song to Enter YouTube Billions Club Might Surprise You

Sire Elton John‘s video for the maudlin 1989 single “Sacrifice” has joined the YouTube billion-views club. The single from John’s 22nd studio album, 1989’s Sleeping with the Past, chronicles the challenge of remaining faithful in marriage, with a video starring singer/songwriter Chris Isaak and supermodel Yasmeen Ghauri.

The clip directed by Alex Keshishian (Madonna: Truth or Dare, Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me) follows Isaak as he and Ghauri struggle to maintain their connection as a married couple while raising their young daughter, with Isaak seeming to take on single parenthood near the end of the video.

The images of the struggling couple are interspersed with shots of John, in round eyeglasses, a bedazzled garrison cap and matching jacket as he sings the song’s sentimental refrain: “Just a simple word/ It’s two hearts livin’/ In two separate worlds/ But, it’s no sacrifice/ No sacrifice/ It’s no sacrifice at all.”

Shockingly, the visual for the song that peaked at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 from an album that stalled at No. 23 on the Billboard 200 album chart is the first one of John’s videos to reach the billion mark on YouTube, besting his other top-viewed clips by a huge margin.

John, 79, performed at Mexico City’s iconic Estadio Banorte last month, playing two gigs that marked the conclusion of his long goodbye Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. The singer’s 49th and final tour kicked off in Allentown, Pa. on Sept. 8, 2018 and circled the world for more than five years and 330 shows, officially winding down on July 8, 2023 in Stockholm, Sweden before the final, final gigs in Mexico City.

Watch John’s “Sacrifice” video below.