Sir Elton Hercules John CH CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947 is a British singer, pianist and composer. Acclaimed by critics and musicians, particularly for his work during the 1970s and for his lasting impact on the music industry, his music and showmanship have had a significant impact on popular music. His songwriting partnership with lyricist Bernie Taupin is one of the most successful in history.
Elton John Facts
- Born : Reginald Kenneth Dwight25 March 1947 (age 76)
- Pinner, Middlesex, England
- Alma : mater Royal Academy of Music
- Occupations: Singerpianistcomposer
- Years active : 1962–present
- Spouses: Renate Blauel
- Children: 2
- Member : of Elton John Band
Elton John Early life
Elton John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947 in Pinner, Middlesex (now part of the London Borough of Harrow), the eldest child of Stanley Dwight (1925–1991) and only child of Sheila Eileen (née Harris; 1925–2017).He was raised in a council house in Pinner by his maternal grandparents. His parents married in 1945, when the family moved to a nearby semi-detached house.He was educated at Pinner Wood Junior School, Reddiford School and Pinner County Grammar School, until he was 17, when he left just before his A-Level examinations to pursue a career in music.
Elton John When John began to consider a career in music seriously, his father, who served in the Royal Air Force, tried to steer him toward a more conventional career, such as banking.John has said that his wild stage costumes and performances were his way of letting go after a restrictive childhood.[41] Both his parents were musically inclined, his father having been a trumpet player with the Bob Millar Band, a semi-professional big band that played at military dances. The Dwights were keen record buyers, exposing John to the popular singers and musicians of the day.
John started playing his grandmother’s piano as a young boy, and within a year his mother heard him picking out Waldteufel’s “The Skater’s Waltz” by ear. After performing at parties and family gatherings, at age seven he began formal piano lessons. He showed musical aptitude at school, including the ability to compose melodies, and gained some notoriety by playing like Jerry Lee Lewis at school functions. At age 11, he won a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. According to one of his instructors, John promptly played back, like a “gramophone record”, a four-page piece by George Frideric Handel after hearing it for the first time.
Elton John (known then as Reg Dwight) studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London for five years.
For the next five years, John attended Saturday classes at the Academy in central London, and he has said he enjoyed playing Frédéric Chopin and Johann Sebastian Bach and singing in the choir during Saturday classes, but that he was not otherwise a diligent classical student “I kind of resented going to the Academy,” he said. “I was one of those children who could just about get away without practising and still pass, scrape through the grades.” He has said that he would sometimes skip classes and ride around on the London Underground. Several instructors have attested that he was a “model student”, and during the last few years he took lessons from a private tutor in addition to his classes at the Academy. He left the Academy before taking the final exams.
John’s mother, though strict with her son, was more vivacious than her husband, and something of a free spirit. With Stanley Dwight uninterested in his son and often absent, John was raised primarily by his mother and maternal grandmother. When his father was home, the Dwights had vehement arguments that greatly distressed John. When he was 14, they divorced. His mother then married a local painter, Fred Farebrother, a caring and supportive stepfather whom John affectionately called “Derf” (“Fred” backwards).They moved into flat No. 3A in an eight-unit apartment building called Frome Court, not far from both previous homes. There John wrote the songs that launched his career as a rock star; he lived there until he had four albums simultaneously in the American Top
Elton John Career
Elton John At age 15, with his mother’s and stepfather’s help, John was hired as a pianist at a nearby pub, the Northwood Hills Hotel, playing Thursday to Sunday nights.Known simply as “Reggie”, he played a range of popular standards, including songs by Jim Reeves and Ray Charles, as well as his own songs.A stint with a short-lived group called the Corvettes rounded out his time. Although normal-sighted as a teenager, John began wearing horn-rimmed glasses to imitate Buddy Holly.
In 1962, John and some friends formed a band called Bluesology. By day, he ran errands for a music publishing company; he divided his nights between solo gigs at a London hotel bar and working with Bluesology. By the mid-1960s, Bluesology was backing touring American soul and R&B musicians like the Isley Brothers, Major Lance and Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles. In 1966, the band became Long John Baldry’s supporting band and played 16 times at the Marquee Club.
The 1910 piano on which John composed his first five albums
In 1967, John answered an advertisement in the British music paper New Musical Express, placed by Ray Williams, then the A&R manager for Liberty Records. At their first meeting, Williams gave John an unopened envelope of lyrics written by Bernie Taupin, who had answered the same ad.John wrote music for the lyrics and then sent it to Taupin, beginning a partnership that still continues. When the two first met in 1967, they recorded the first John/Taupin song, “Scarecrow”. Six months later, John began going by the name Elton John in homage to two members of Bluesology: saxophonist Elton Dean and vocalist Long John Baldry He legally changed his name to Elton Hercules John on 7 January 1972.
The team of John and Taupin joined Dick James’s DJM Records as staff songwriters in 1968, and over the next two years wrote material for various artists, among them Roger Cook and Lulu.Taupin would write a batch of lyrics in under an hour and give it to John, who would write music for them in half an hour, disposing of the lyrics if he could not come up with anything quickly. For two years they wrote easy-listening tunes for James to peddle to singers. Their early output included a contender for the UK entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1969, for Lulu, called “I Can’t Go On (Living Without You)”. It came sixth of six songs. In 1969, John provided piano for Roger Hodgson on his first released single, “Mr. Boyd” by Argosy, a quartet that was completed by Caleb Quaye and Nigel Olsson.
Elton John 1969–1973: Debut album to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
On the advice of music publisher Steve Brown, John and Taupin began writing more complex songs for John to record for DJM. The first was the single “I’ve Been Loving You” (1968), produced by Caleb Quaye, Bluesology’s former guitarist. In 1969, with Quaye, drummer Roger Pope, and bassist Tony Murray, John recorded another single, “Lady Samantha”, and an album, Empty Sky. For their follow-up album, Elton John, John and Taupin enlisted Gus Dudgeon as producer and Paul Buckmaster as musical arranger. Elton John was released in April 1970 on DJM Records/Pye Records in the UK and Uni Records in the US, and established the formula for subsequent albums: gospel-chorded rockers and poignant ballads. The album’s first single, “Border Song”, peaked at 92 on the Billboard Hot 100. The second, “Your Song”, reached number seven in the UK Singles Chart and number eight in the US, becoming John’s first hit single as a singer The album soon became his first hit album, reaching number four on the US Billboard 200 and number five on the UK Albums Chart.
Backed by former Spencer Davis Group drummer Nigel Olsson and bassist Dee Murray, John’s first American concert took place at the Troubadour in Los Angeles on 25 August 1970, and was a success.The concept album Tumbleweed Connection was released in October 1970 and reached number two in the UK and number five in the US.The live album 17-11-70 (titled 11–17–70 in the US) was recorded at a live show aired from A&R Studios on WABC-FM in New York City. Sales of the live album took a blow in the US when an east-coast bootlegger released the performance several weeks before the official album, including all 60 minutes of the aircast, not just the 40 minutes selected by Dick James Music.
John at the Musikhalle Hamburg, in March 1972
John and Taupin wrote the soundtrack to the 1971 film Friends and the album Madman Across the Water, which reached number eight in the US and included the hit songs “Levon” and the album’s opening track, “Tiny Dancer”. In 1972, Davey Johnstone joined the Elton John Band on guitar and backing vocals. Released in 1972, Honky Château became John’s first US number one album, spending five weeks at the top of the Billboard 200, and began a streak of seven consecutive US number-one albums. The album reached number two in the UK, and spawned the hit singles “Rocket Man” and “Honky Cat”.
In 1972 John performed at the Royal Variety Performance, where he was upstaged by the dancing of “Legs” Larry Smith, the drummer with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.Smith was invited to join John’s second US tour; Smith later said: “I suggested adding in various other bizarre elements like me doing “Singin’ in the Rain” as a song and dance act with Elton playing piano. Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange film had recently featured that song. Plus I designed crazy, over-the-top costumes and giant stage sets – known as ‘Legstravaganzas’. Elton loved all of it.”
The pop album Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player came out at the start of 1973 and reached number one in the UK, the US, and Australia, among other countries.[59] The album produced the hits “Crocodile Rock”, his first US Billboard Hot 100 number one, and “Daniel”, which reached number two in the US and number four in the UK The album and “Crocodile Rock” were respectively the first album and single on the consolidated MCA Records label in the US, replacing MCA’s other labels, including Uni.
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, released in October 1973, gained instant critical acclaim and topped the chart on both sides of the Atlantic, remaining at number one for two months. It also temporarily established John as a glam rock star. It contained the US number 1 “Bennie and the Jets”, along with the hits “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, “Candle in the Wind”, “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” and “Funeral for a FriendLove Lies Bleeding
Elton John 2000–2009: Billy Elliot the Musical and 60th birthday
By this time, John disliked appearing in his own music videos; the video for “This Train Don’t Stop There Anymore” featured Justin Timberlake portraying a young John, and the video for “I Want Love” featured Robert Downey, Jr. lip-syncing the song.At the 2001 Grammy Awards, John performed “Stan” with Eminem.[141] One month after the 11 September attacks, John appeared at the Concert for New York City, performing “I Want Love” as well as “Your Song” as a duet with Billy Joel. In August 2003, John’s fifth UK number one single, “Are You Ready for Love”, topped the charts.
Advertisement for John’s award-winning West End musical Billy Elliot on a Routemaster bus in London, 2007
Returning to musical theatre, John composed music for a West End production of Billy Elliot the Musical in 2005 with playwright Lee Hall. John had been moved to write the musical after seeing the 2000 British coming-of-age film Billy Elliot, saying of the titular character, “he’s like me”. Opening to strong reviews, the show won four Laurence Olivier Awards, including Best New Musical. The 12th-longest-running musical in West End history, the London production, which featured Tom Holland as Billy for two years, ran through April 2016, with 4,566 performances.
As of December 2015, Billy Elliot has been seen by over 5.25 million people in London and nearly 11 million people worldwide (on Broadway where it won the Tony Award for Best Musical, in Sydney, Melbourne, Chicago, Toronto, Seoul, the Netherlands and São Paulo, Brazil etc.), grossed over $800 million worldwide and won over 80 theatre awards internationally.John’s only theatrical project with Taupin is Lestat, based on Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles. It received negative reviews from critics and closed in May 2006 after 39 performances. John featured on rapper Tupac Shakur’s posthumous single “Ghetto Gospel”, which topped the UK charts in July 2005.
John has had two residencies at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas. The first, The Red Piano, ran from 2004 to 2009, and the second, The Million Dollar Piano (sign pictured) ran from 2011 to 2018.
In October 2003, John announced that he had signed an exclusive agreement to perform 75 shows over three years at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip. The show, The Red Piano, was a multimedia concert featuring massive props and video montages created by David LaChapelle. Effectively, he and Celine Dion shared performances at Caesars Palace throughout the year; while one performed, the other rested. The first of these shows took place on 13 February 2004 In February 2006, John and Dion sang together at the venue to raise money for Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. workers affected by the 2005 hurricanes, performing “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word” and “Saturday Night’s Alright (for Fighting)”
The Walt Disney Company named John a Disney Legend for his contributions to Disney’s films and theatrical works on 9 October 2006. Also in 2006, he told Rolling Stone that he planned for his next record to be in R&B and hip hop. “I want to work with Pharrell Williams, Timbaland, Snoop [Dogg], Kanye [West], Eminem and just see what happens”, he said. West sampled John’s “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” on his 2007 song “Good Morning” and in 2010 invited him to his Hawaii studio to play piano and sing on “All of the Lights”.
John on piano at the Concert for Diana, commemorating the 10 year passing of Princess Diana, at Wembley Stadium on 1 July 2007
In March 2007, John performed at Madison Square Garden for a record-breaking 60th time for his 60th birthday; the concert was broadcast live and a DVD recording was released as Elton 60 – Live at Madison Square Garden;a greatest-hits compilation CD, Rocket Man—Number Ones, was released in 17 different versions worldwide, including a CD/DVD combo; and his back catalogue—almost 500 songs from 32 albums—became available for legal paid download.
On 1 July 2007, John appeared at the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium in honour of Diana, Princess of Wales on what would have been her 46th birthday, with the concert’s proceeds going to Diana’s charities as well as to charities of which her sons Prince William and Prince Harry are patrons. John opened the concert with “Your Song” and closed it with “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting”, “Tiny Dancer”, and “Are You Ready For Love”
On 21 June 2008, John performed his 200th show at Caesars Palace. A DVD/CD package of The Red Piano was released through Best Buy in November 2008. In a September 2008 GQ interview John said, “I’m going on the road again with Billy Joel again next year”, referring to “Face to Face”, a series of concerts featuring the two. The tour began in March.
In 2009, John accepted Jerry Cantrell’s invitation to collaborate with his band Alice in Chains. John played the piano in the song “Black Gives Way to Blue”, a tribute to the band’s late lead singer, Layne Staley, which was the title track and closing song of the album Black Gives Way to Blue, released in September 2009.The first concert Staley attended was one of John’s, and his mother said he was blown away by it. Cantrell added, “Elton is a very important musical influence to all of us in varying degrees, and especially to me. My first album was Elton John’s Greatest Hits. And actually, we were reminded by Layne’s stepfather that Elton was his first concert, so it was all really appropriate.” John said he had long admired Cantrell and could not resist the offer.