Elton John
Reginald Dwight
BORN: March 25, 1947, Pinner, Middlesex, England
In terms of sales and lasting popularity, Elton John was the biggest pop
superstar of the early '70s. Initially marketed as a singer/songwriter, John
soon revealed he could craft Beatlesque pop and pound out rockers with equal
aplomb. He could dip into soul, disco and country, as well as classic pop
balladry and even progressive rock. His versatility, combined with his effortless
melodic skills, dynamic charisma and flamboyant stage shows made him the
most popular recording artist of the '70s. Unlike many pop stars, John was
able to sustain his popularity, charting a Top 40 single every single year
from 1970 to 1996. During that time, he had temporary slumps in creativity
and sales, as he fell out of favor with critics, had fights with his lyricist
Bernie Taupin, and battled various addictions and public scandals. But through
it all, John remained a remarkably popular artist and many of his songs --
including "Your Song," "Rocket Man," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," and "Don't
Let the Sun Go Down On Me" -- became contemporary pop standards.
The son of a former Royal Air Force trumpeter, Elton John was born Reginald
Kenneth Dwight in 1947. Dwight began playing piano at the age of four, and
when he was 11, he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. After
studying for six years, he left school with the intention of breaking into
the music business. In 1961, he joined his first band, Bluesology, and divided
his time between playing with the group, giving solo concerts at a local
hotel, and running errands for a London publishing house. By 1965, Bluesology
were backing touring American soul and R&B musicians like Major Lance,
Doris Troy and the Bluebells. In 1966, Bluesology became Long John Baldry's
supporting band, and began touring cabarets throughout England. Dwight became
frustrated with Baldry's control of the band and began searching for other
groups to join. He failed his lead vocalist auditions for both King Crimson
and Gentle Giant before responding to an advertisement by Liberty Records.
Though he failed his Liberty audition, he was given a stack of lyrics Bernie
Taupin, who had also replied to the ad, had left with the label. Dwight wrote
music for Taupin's lyrics and began corresponding with him through mail.
By the time the two met six months later, Dwight had changed his name to
Elton John, taking his first name from Bluesology saxophonist Elton Dean
and his last from John Baldry.
John and Taupin were hired by Dick James to become staff songwriters at his
fledgling DJM in 1968. The pair collaborated at a rapid rate, with Taupin
submitting batches of lyrics -- he often wrote a song an hour -- every few
weeks. John would then write music without changing the words, sometimes
completing the songs in under a half hour. Over the next two years, the duo
wrote songs for pop singers like Roger Cook and Lulu. In the meantime, John
recorded cover versions of current hits for budget labels to be sold in supermarkets.
By the summer of 1968, he had begun recording singles for release under his
own name. Usually, these songs were more rock and radio-oriented than the
tunes he and Taupin were giving to other vocalists, yet neither of his early
singles for Phillips, "I've Been Loving You Too Long" and "Lady Samantha,"
sold well. In June of 1969, he released his debut album for DJM, Empty Sky,
which received fair reviews, but no sales.
For his second album, John and Taupin hired producer Gus Dudgeon and arranger
Paul Buckmaster, who contributed grandiose string charts to Elton John. Released
in the summer of 1970, Elton John began to make inroads in America, where
it was appeared on MCA's Uni subsidiary. In August, he gave his first American
concert at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, which received enthusiastic reviews,
as well as praise from Quincy Jones and Leon Russell. Throughout the fall,
Elton John continued to climb the charts on the strength of the Top 10 single,
"Your Song." John followed it quickly in February 1971 with the concept album
Tumbleweed Connection, which received heavy airplay on album-oriented radio
in the US, helping it climb into the Top 10. The rapid release of Tumbleweed
Connection established a pattern of frequent releases that John maintained
throughout his career. In 1971, he released the live 11-17-70 and the Friends
soundtrack, before releasing Madman Across the Water late in the year. Madman
Across the Water was successful, but John achieved stardom with the followup,
1972's Honky Chateau. Recorded with his touring band -- bassist Dee Murray,
drummer Nigel Olsson and guitarist Davey Johnstone -- and featuring the hit
singles "Rocket Man" and "Honky Cat," Honky Chateau became his first American
number one album, spending five weeks at the top of the charts.
Between 1972 and 1976, Elton John and Bernie Taupin's hit-making machine
was virtually unstoppable. "Rocket Man" began a four-year streak of 16 Top
20 hits in a row; out of those 16 -- including "Crocodile Rock," "Daniel,"
"Bennie and the Jets," "The Bitch Is Back" and "Philadelphia Freedom" --
only one, the FM hit "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," failed to reach
the Top Ten. Honky Chateau began a streak of seven consecutive number one
albums -- Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player (1973), Goodbye Yellow
Brick Road (1973), Caribou (1974), Greatest Hits (1974), Captain Fantastic
and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975), Rock of the Westies (1975) -- that all
went platinum. John founded Rocket, a record label distributed by MCA, in
1973 in order to sign and produce acts like Neil Sedaka and Kiki Dee. John
didn't become a Rocket recording artist himself, choosing to stay with MCA
for a record-breaking eight million dollar contract in 1974. Later in 1974,
he co-wrote John Lennon's number one comeback single, "Whatever Gets You
Through the Night," and he persuaded Lennon to join him onstage at Madison
Square Garden on Thanksgiving Day 1974; it would prove to be Lennon's last
live performance. The following year, Captain Fantastic became the first
album to enter the American charts at number one. After its release, he revamped
his band, which now featured Johnstone, Quaye, Roger Pope, Ray Cooper and
bassist Kenny Passarelli; Rock of the Westies was the first album to feature
this lineup.
Throughout the mid-'70s, John's concerts were enormously popular, as were
his singles and albums, and he continued to record and perform at a rapid
pace until 1976. That year, he revealed in an interview in Rolling Stone
that he was bisexual; he would later admit that the confession was a compromise,
since he was afraid to reveal that he was homosexual. Many fans reacted negatively
to John's bisexuality, and his audience began to shrink somewhat in the late
'70s. The decline in his record sales was also due to his exhaustion. After
1976, John cut his performance schedule drastically, announcing that he was
retiring from live performances in 1977 and started recording only one album
a year. His relationship with Taupin became strained following the release
of 1976's double-album Blue Moves, and the lyricist began working with other
musicians. John returned in 1978 with A Single Man, which was written with
Gary Osborne; the record produced no Top 20 singles. That year, he returned
to live performances, first by jamming at the Live Stiffs package tour, then
by launching a comeback tour in 1979 accompanied only by percussionist Ray
Cooper. "Mama Can't Buy You Love," a song he recorded with Phillie soul producer
Thom Bell in 1977, returned him to the Top Ten in 1979, but that year's Victim
of Love was a commercial disappointment.
John reunited with Taupin for 1980's 21 at 33, which featured the Top 10
single "Little Jeannie." Over the next three years, John remained a popular
concert artist, but his singles failed to break the Top 10, even if they
reached the Top 40. In 1981, he signed with Geffen Records and his second
album, Jump Up! became a gold album on the strength of "Blue Eyes" and "Empty
Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)," his tribute to John Lennon. But it was 1983's Too
Low for Zero that began his last great streak of hit singles, with the MTV
hit "I'm Still Standing" and the Top Ten single "I Guess That's Why They
Call It the Blues." Throughout the rest of the '80s, John's albums would
consistently go gold, and they always generated at least one Top 40 single;
frequently, they featured Top 10 singles like "Sad Songs (Say So Much)" (1984),
"Nikita" (1986), "Candle in the Wind" (1987), and " I Don't Want To Go On
With You Like That" (1988). While his career continued to be successful,
his personal life was in turmoil. Since the mid-'70s, he had been addicted
to cocaine and alcohol, and the situation only worsened during the '80s.
In a surprise move, he married engineer Renate Blauel in 1984; the couple
stayed married for four years, although John later admitted he realized he
was homosexual before his marriage. In 1986, he underwent throat surgery
while on tour in 1986, but even after he successfully recovered, he continued
to abuse cocaine and alocohol.
Following a record-breaking five-date stint at Madison Square Garden in 1988,
John auctioned off all of his theatrical costumes, thousands of pieces of
memorabilia and his extensive record collection through Sotheby's. The auction
was a symbolic turning point. Over the next two years, John battled both
his drug addiction and bulimia, undergoing hair replacement surgery at the
same time. By 1991, he was sober and the following year, he established the
Elton John AIDS Foundation; he also announced that he would donate all royalties
from his single sales to AIDS research.
In 1992, John returned to active recording with The One. Peaking at number
eight on the US charts and going double platinum, the album became his most
successful record since Blue Moves, and sparked a career renaissance for
John. He and Taupin signed a record-breaking publishing deal with Warner/Chappell
Music in 1992 for an estimated $39 million. In 1994, John collaborated with
lyricist Tim Rice on songs for Disney's animated feature The Lion King. One
of their collaborations, "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," won the Academy
Award for Best Original Song, as well as the Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal
Performance. John's 1995 album Made In England continued his comeback, peaking
at number three on the UK charts and number 13 in the US; in America, the
album went platinum. The 1997 follow-up The Big Picture delivered more of
the same well-crafted pop, made the Top Ten, and produced a hit in "Something
About the Way You Look Tonight." However, its success was overshadowed by
John's response to the tragic death of Princess Diana -- he re-recorded "Candle
in the Wind" (originally a eulogy for Marilyn Monroe) as a tribute to his
slain friend, with Taupin adapting the lyrics for what was planned as the
B-side of "Something About the Way You Look Tonight." With the profits earmarked
for Diana's favorite charities, and with a debut performance at Diana's funeral,
"Candle in the Wind 1997" became the fastest-selling hit of all time in both
Britain and the U.S. upon the single's release, easily debuting at number
one on both sides of the Atlantic; with first-week sales of over three million
copies in the U.S. alone and 14 weeks in the top spot, it was John's biggest
hit ever. For his next project, John reunited with Lion King collaborator
Tim Rice to write songs for Disney's Broadway musical adaptation of the story
of Aida; an album of their efforts featuring a who's-who of contemporary
pop musicians was released in early 1999, going gold by the end of the year.
In late 2000, John landed a TV special with CBS, performing a selection of
his greatest hits at Madison Square Garden; a companion album drawn from
those performances, One Night Only, was issued shortly before the special
aired. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide