| Elton
John, in terms of sales and lasting
popularity, 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, 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 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 Ten
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 U.S.,
helping it climb into the Top Ten. 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
follow-up, 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, John and
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 on-stage 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 Philly 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 Ten
single "Little Jeannie." Over the next
three years, John remained a popular
concert artist, but his singles failed
to break the Top Ten, 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 Ten 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 alcohol.
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 U.S. 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 dollars. 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
U.K. charts and number 13 in the U.S.;
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. 2001's
Songs From the West Coast was a return
to form for John who found critical
success for the first time since the
eighties. However it wasn't until 2004's
popular Peachtree Road album that he
managed to match that success
commercially. |
