Songfacts®:

• This song finds Gary Barlow collaborating with Sir Elton John. The Take That star told MTV UK how he nabbed the Rocket Man for this duet. "I've been friends with Elton for quite a few years, probably 20 years actually, we've done stuff on stage together before but never on a record," Barlow stated. "I've been looking for an excuse to do this song for years and years and I came up with 'Face To Face' at the end of last year."
  
  He continued: "I sent it to him and within like an hour, he called me back and said, 'let's do it, let's go!' So we went into Abbey Road for three hours one Monday afternoon and not only did we record the song but we shot the video at the same time."
• Following the commercial failure of Barlow's second solo album, Twelve Months, Eleven Days, he was dropped from his label and deserted by former friends and colleagues. Elton was one of the few that stuck with him during his wilderness years and this glammy stomper is a thank-you to the singer for sticking by him as well as a poke at those who treated like a pariah. "It's a respect song," Barlow told The Daily Telegraph. "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."
• Gary Barlow first collaborated with Elton John in 1994 when he sang backup along with Kiki Dee and Rick Astley on the Your Song singer's "Can You Feel The Love Tonight."