Songfacts®:

• This is a track from The Union, the 13th studio album released by Elton John. The record is a collaboration with American singer-songwriter Leon Russell. It was produced by T-Bone Burnett who won a Grammy for his work on Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' Raising Sand.
• John, Russell and Burnett all share songwriting credits on this track along with Atlanta R&B, soul and funk singer-songwriter The Mighty Hannibal (aka James Shaw). The song is derived from "Hymn No. 5," an antiwar song released in 1966 by The Mighty Hannibal as the fighting in Vietnam was accelerating. "Leon started playing that song in the studio; he said, 'Do you know that Mighty Hannibal song?' " Burnett recalled to Billboard Magazine. "It's got an incredible chorus, but the words were spoken about Vietnam, and it just wouldn't work with Elton and Leon singing about Vietnam. So we called him up and asked if he would mind co-writing a song with us. Elton picked up the phone and said, 'Hello, I'm Elton John. I'm a piano player and songwriter, and we'd like to write some new words for 'Hymn No. 5.'"
• Elton told the Radio Times: "'There's No Tomorrow' sounds like a New Orleans funeral march, with everything I love about Leon's music - country, soul, gospel, funk and melancholy."