 John has always said he regards "Skyline Pigeon" as one of the first "great" songs that he and Taupin wrote.John performed the song at the funeral of the AIDS victim and friend Ryan White in 1990 on a grand piano, although he played Roland Piano on tour and in the studio at the time.Apart from its earlier appearances on record, a live, solo piano version recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in London during summer 1974 was also included as the opening number on the "Here" side of the "Here and There" album in 1976, a place it retained in the 1995 2-CD expanded version remixed by the album's original producer Gus Dudgeon.