Sir Elton John
Elton John was born Reginald Dwight on the 25th March 1987 and grew up in Pinner, Middlesex. Despite his parents trying to steer him toward a more conventional career they both had musical backgrounds that introduced John to some of the great musicians of the 1950s.
He started playing piano as young as three years old and soon showed great ability to be able to play by ear. From the age of eleven he attended the Royal Academy of Music. From the age of fifteen he got a weekend job as a pianist in a local pub.
In the mid-sixties he formed a group called Bluesology who went on to back a number of popular groups including The Isley Brothers. In 1967, history was made when John answered an advert in the NME requesting a vocalist. It was then that he was united with Bernie Taupin who provided John with a batch of lyrics that he then wrote music for (Scarecrow was the first song recorded). It was also about this time that Reg Dwight started going by the name, Elton John.
The pair famously had a creative process of not being in the same room together in that Taupin would write lyrics which John would add music to completely separately (this was later covered in documentary-film Two Rooms), the process would see them write for the likes of Lulu. By 1968, John’s label DJM Records were encouraging him and Bernie Taupin to record more of their compositions with John singing and so they released the singles I’ve Been Loving You and Lady Samantha along with the album, Empty Sky.The records were met with good reviews although sold poorly.
It was when he had his first hit, Your Song that the singer began making a commercial impact. His new status afforded him the opportunity to record England’s 1970 World Cup song, Back Home. It was followed by successful concept and soundtrack albums, Tumbleweed Connection and Friends. By 1972 a stable Elton John Band was established featuring bassist Dee Murray, drummer Nigel Olsson and guitarist Davey Johnstone. Combined with producer, Gus Dudgeon the combination created five hit albums.The first of these was Honky Chateau the first of his to reach number one featuring classic tracks such as Rocket Man.
Arguably his greatest album was released in 1973, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, the double album was number one in both the UK and US. In 1975 the band disbanded following the release of (successful and autobiographical) album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.
Although the mid-seventies saw John release popular but slightly less acclaimed records he was able to hone his skills as both a talented and flamboyant performer able to sell out stadiums. In 1976 he revealed to music magazine, The Rolling Stone that he was bisexual. The following year he retreated from fame and would only appear in public when watching his beloved Watford F.C. (for whom he was chairman for a period). This also put his partnership with Taupin on hold as the songwriter worked with other acts and John’s next two albums featured different lyricists.By 1979 the pair reunited along with Elton John Band members Olsson and Murray and the following year John performed a free concert to some 400,000 people in New York’s Central Park.
The eighties saw enormous upheaval in John’s personal life as he married his sound engineer Renate Blauel in 1984, before the pair divorced four years later when John came to the realisation that he was gay, they remain close friends.
With the personnel around him that helped his rise to fame in the seventies Elton John once again found form with a string of hits albeit never quite matching his heyday. The early nineties saw John battling drug and alcohol problems all the while raising awareness of AIDS establishing the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
Musically John had huge success in 1994 by contributing songs to Disney’s Lion King Soundtrack including Can You Feel the Love Tonight which won the Oscar for best song. That same year saw him inducted into the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.
1997 saw Elton John have his biggest selling song (and indeed the best selling single of all time) amid tragic circumstances. When close friend, Diana, Princess of Wales was killed in Paris, John performed an emotional reworking of his 1974 song Candle in the Wind at her funeral.
Elton John was married for a second time in 2005, when he and long-term partner David Furnish entered into a civil partnership. John remains a major draw as a live performer.
