A legend in his lifetime, a great humanitarian, a multiple Grammy winner, a flamboyant superstar and a hero of our times, Elton John is the most enduringly successful singer/songwriter of his generation. He has sustained an inimitable career over more than 35 years, scoring at least one Top 40 American hit single a year between 1970 and 1999. His path has been entirely his own, operating outside the fickle swings and roundabouts of musical fashions but always, somehow, managing to connect with everyone.
Three decades since the release of his first album, Empty Sky, in 1969, Elton is still turning out some of the finest music of his career. Elton's musical life is marked by a startling resilience, openness and refusal to let his talent simmer.
A former student of the Royal Academy of Music in London, England, the man born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in 1947 left school and immediately began his path in the music industry. His first band, Bluesology, was formed in 1961. He would later take his stage name from the Bluesology saxophonist Elton Dean and their charismatic frontman, Long John Baldry. Frustrated by his arduous touring dues being paid behind other performers, Elton was introduced to Bernie Taupin in 1966 by Liberty Records. Amazingly, their first compositions were conducted by mail. In 1968 they became staff songwriters for Dick James' DJM label, farming out music to budding pop stars.
Elton and Bernie's prolific nature was established early in his career. By the time Elton's self-titled breakthrough album and evergreen hit Your Song had introduced him to an international stage in 1970, they had honed their skill to such a degree that Taupin could turn out a lyric in half an hour and Elton could compose to it within the hour. This reaped huge benefits, and in the period between 1972-76, they turned out a stellar three albums a year, including the still dearly beloved Madman Across The Water, Tumbleweed Connection, Honky Chateau, Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy and Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only The Piano Player. Amongst these, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, with its string of American Number One hit singles and unbroken two month run at the top of the Billboard Top 100, became an all time classic.
1974 was a good year for Elton. Not only did he sign a record-breaking 8 million dollar deal with MCA, he co-wrote John Lennon's comeback single 'Whatever Gets You Through The Night', and was joined by his fellow legend on stage at New York's Madison Square Garden to perform it. Their mutual appreciation society ran until Lennon's cruel, untimely death in 1980.
For Elton the late 1970s were a time of new rebirth and artistic experimentation that is only now beginning to be reappraised. Though his relationship with Taupin had come to a temporary standstill, his ambitious double album Blue Moves has long been a favourite amongst fans, A Single Man provided a fortuitous musical hook-up with Gary Osborne, and his 1977 sessions with Philly Soul producer Thom Bell provided him with a Number One UK hit in 2003 in the form of Are You Ready For Love, when it was re-released due to demand from influential British DJs. This is an ongoing pattern. Elton has always been given credit from the unlikeliest quarters. Courtney Love and Michael Stipe have both told the artist that he was the soundtrack to their 1970s. The filmmaker Cameron Crowe has immortalised Tiny Dancer in his fictional rock-umentary, Almost Famous. And more recently, producer Eminem used a sample of Elton and Bernie's 1970 composition, Indian Sunset on 2 Pac's single, Ghetto Gospel. This single spent three weeks at the top of the singles charts in Britain and in other countries.
John and Taupin were reunited for 21 At 33 in 1980. The album swiftly reacquainted Elton with the Top Ten and introduced yet another new beginning for the artist. In retrospect the album Jump Up! with the smash single Blue Eyes and Lennon tribute Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny), was a dress rehearsal for his return to peak form on Too Low For Zero, the home of two of Elton's live favourites to this day, I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues and I'm Still Standing, his valedictory song to the troubles he had gone through. The 80s were littered with platinum albums and Top 40 singles: Nikita, Sad Songs (Say So Much) and the rousing I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That.
In 1992 in the USA, and in 1993 in the UK, Elton established the Elton John AIDS Foundation; his pioneering charity dedicated to breakthrough work on behalf of those around the world suffering from HIV and related illnesses. The next year he released the double platinum album The One. The 90s saw him rise to new heights. He broke records again by signing a multi-million publishing deal in '92. His collaboration with Tim Rice on music for Disney's The Lion King garnered not only a Best male pop Grammy but his first Academy Award.
Elton has since collaborated with Tim Rice again on the Broadway smash Aida. Billy Elliot The Musical, with music by Elton John and lyrics by Lee Hall, was launched on the London stage in 2005. It is staggeringly successful, not only with the audiences, but also with the most hard-bitten theatre critics on both side of the Atlantic.
The late 1990s were a time of personal tragedy for Elton, with the loss of his good friends, fashion design guru Gianni Versace and Diana, the Princess of Wales. The death of the Princess would provide him with the biggest single hit of his career, a rewrite of his Marilyn Monroe tribute Candle In The Wind, which he performed at the Princess' funeral. Candle in the Wind 97 is still the biggest selling single in the world, ever.
In 1998 Elton received a knighthood from HRH Queen Elizabeth II for "services to music and charitable services."
The new millennium has seen Elton invigorated and back at the top of his game. In 2002 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Royal Academy of Music. Since 2004 he has undertaken a residency with The Red Piano show at the Caesars Palace Colosseum in Las Vegas, art-directed by the brilliant conceptualist, David LaChapelle. He will take the Red Piano show to Europe for the first time in summer 2007. The 2001 album Songs From The West Coast gave another smash hit single with I Want Love, and then in 2005 the release of the deluxe edition of Peachtree Road, including three new songs from Billy Elliot The Musical gave Elton another hit single with the Billy Elliot song Electricity.
In September 2005 Elton marked the 30th anniversary of the release of one of his best-loved albums, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, with a new deluxe CD version of the album, and a series of special concerts in America where he performed most of the Captain Fantastic songs in concerts that lasted for well over three hours. In 2005 Elton and Bernie Taupin collaborated on the music for Lestat, based on Anne Rice's Vampire Lestat novels. This musical opened on New York's Broadway in April 2006.
In 2006 he released the autobiographical album The Captain & The Kid, the sequel to Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. 2007 sees the release of Rocket Man - Number Ones (also known as Rocket Man-The Definitive Hits), a single cd album which features eighteen classic hit songs. Also in 2007, for the first time ever, Elton's entire back catalogue of nearly 500 tracks (90 singles and 32 albums) becomes available to download legally.
The release of Rocket Man is coupled with a landmark for Elton -- on March 25th he will celebrate his 60th birthday while breaking his own record with an unmatched 60th concert at the legendary Madison Square Garden in New York. No other entertainer has come close to matching this record.
In 2005 Elton joined in a civil partnership with long-term partner David Furnish. Elton continues to divide his spare time between his homes in London, England; Atlanta, America; Venice, Italy and of course his beloved Nice, France, where he spends every summer.
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