Sir Elton Hercules John, CH, CBE, (* March 25, 1947, as Reginald Kenneth Dwight in Pinner, Middlesex, Greater London, England) is a British singer, composer, pianist, and two-time Oscar winner. With 300 million records sold, he is one of the five artists with the most records sold worldwide (alongside the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and Madonna). His repertoire ranges from ballads to rock and rock ‘n’ roll titles to gospel-like blues and boogie numbers. Elton John celebrated his first successes in the 1960s. His big breakthrough came in 1970 with the album Elton John and the single Your Song, which became a worldwide hit. Among his early trademarks are, among other things, extravagant stage outfits and glasses.
Childhood and Beginnings
His father, the soldier Stanley Dwight (1925–1991), had no interest in his son, and his mother Sheila (1925–2017) had little time. Reginald Kenneth Dwight was therefore primarily raised by his grandmother Ivy, who motivated him to play the piano. He did not have a good relationship with his father; this relationship, characterized by indifference toward his son, was processed in 1995 in the autobiographical title “Made in England” (“I had a quit-me father, had a love-me mother”). After several years of piano lessons, he won a junior scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London at the age of eleven, where he studied piano for five years.
In 1965, he founded the band Bluesology with college classmates. The group accompanied US soul artists and later became the backing band for Long John Baldry. This inspired Dwight to adopt his stage name by combining the first names of saxophonist Elton Dean and singer John Baldry into the name Elton John. The name was also officially changed. In 1969, he managed to place his first composition on a Three Dog Nite album while working on his first solo album.
With the lyricist Bernie Taupin, whom he met in 1967 thru an advertisement for a composer position at a newly founded record label called Liberty Records, Elton John has written almost all of his songs since 1969. The sound engineer Caleb Quaye made over 30 demo recordings at the London DJM recording studios between June and December 1967, of which his boss, the music publisher Dick James, initially knew nothing. When he found out, he gave the talented Elton John a publishing contract with his music publisher DJM Music on November 7, 1967, along with Bernie Taupin. The founding of DJM Records followed on February 28, 1969, on which Elton John’s records were distributed by Pye Records until September 1976. In 1969, his first album, Empty Sky, was also released. The album received positive reviews but sold poorly. Dick James had to decide whether to invest in Elton John again. In the end, he decided to give him another chance. He hired Gus Dudgeon for the new album, one of the most respected producers at the time.
Breakthrough and the 70s
The second album, Elton John, recorded with a string orchestra, was a great success. The first single, “Border Song,” only reached number 92 in the USA in 1970, but with the second release, “Your Song,” Elton John achieved his first top-ten hit in both England and the USA. On August 25, 1970, Elton John performed for the first time in the United States, at the Troubadour Club. Among the guests were several reporters who covered the concert. This performance brought John a ton of positive reviews in the newspapers. In 1971, John Reid became his lover and music manager. Their romantic relationship ended after five years, but Reid remained Elton John’s manager until 1998.
In 1973, Elton John founded the label Rocket Records. With hits like Rocket Man, Crocodile Rock, Daniel, Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Bennie and the Jets, the Marilyn Monroe tribute Candle in the Wind, and Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me, Elton John became one of the most successful pop stars of the 1970s. During this time, his band consisted of guitarist Davey Johnstone, bassist Dee Murray, and drummer Nigel Olsson. On many songs, the band sang backing vocals, including the autobiographical “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” (No. 4 in the U.S.) from the album “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy,” the first album to debut at No. 1 in the U.S. Johnstone and Olsson are still members of Elton John’s band; Murray died of a stroke in 1992. With the Beatles cover Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, on which John Lennon played the reggae guitar, as well as the title Philadelphia Freedom, Elton John had two more number-one hits in the USA after Benny And The Jets. In the film version of the Who’s rock opera Tommy, he played the Pinball Wizard and the Who’s title track, which reached number 7 in the UK. With the duet “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” sung with singer Kiki Dee, Elton John also achieved a disko hit in 1976. After 1976, Elton John’s success faded with the rise of punk and disko music, particularly in the USA. The attempt to ride the wave with the disko album Victim Of Love (1979) failed miserably. With the title Mama Can’t Buy You Love from the mini-album The Thom Bell Sessions, he achieved another top-ten hit in the USA in 1979. In the same year, he also made music history by becoming the first Western pop musician to go on a concert tour in the then Soviet Union.
The 80s
From 1980 onward, he returned to ballads with titles like Little Jeannie, Blue Eyes, and I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues. By the mid-1980s, more of his singles, such as “I’m Still Standing,” “Sad Songs,” and “Nikita,” reached high chart positions.
He often participated in charitable projects as well. In 1985, he recorded the charity single “That’s What Friends Are For” together with Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder as Dionne & Friends, in support of AIDS projects. In the same year, he also performed at the Live Aid concert in London.
Due to his drug use, John had to undergo a larynx operation in 1987, thru which he lost his falsetto and had to relearn how to sing.
In 1988, he appeared as a guest star at several charity Crossroads concert events initiated and organized by Eric Clapton and had another top hit in the USA with the single “I Don’t Wanna Go On With You Like That.”
With the album “Sleeping with the Past” and the single “Sacrifice,” he achieved another solo success in 1989, his first number-one hit without duet participation in his British homeland. Due to his health condition, Elton John disappeared from the stage at the end of 1989. In 1990, he underwent a drug rehabilitation program, which helped him overcome his 16-year addiction. Elton John himself says that this measure saved his life. After that, Elton John completely withdrew from the public eye for almost two years and, apart from a single performance with George Michael in 1991, did not make any further stage appearances. The duet recorded with George Michael, “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” became even more successful than the original release in 1974. During this break, Elton John founded his AIDS Foundation. As a motive, Elton John cites his friends Freddie Mercury and Ryan White, who died of AIDS.
The 90s
In 1992, the album The One was released, marking his comeback. The album was very successful worldwide and sold more than 16 million copies. The subsequent world tour was also a great success. Elton John played over 100 concerts worldwide in front of over 3.6 million people. Also that year, Elton John decided to donate the proceeds from his singles sold in America to the AIDS Foundation he founded.
In 1992, Elton John sang the song “Bohemian Rhapsody” at the tribute concert for Freddie Mercury, together with Axl Rose. In 1995, he covered the Queen song “The Show Must Go On” at a concert.
For a 1993 album of duets, John collaborated with George Michael, Kiki Dee, Leonard Cohen, P. M. Dawn, Marcella Detroit, Little Richard, Don Henley, Chris Rea, Tammy Wynette, Nik Kershaw, Gladys Knight, Paul Young, Bonnie Raitt, and drag queen RuPaul. The latter sang with John the re-recording of Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.
In 1994, John composed part of the music for the Disney film The Lion King and received the Oscar for Best Original Song for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.” In 1994, Elton John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 1997, John released a reworked version of Candle in the Wind, mourning the death of Princess Diana. The single Something About the Way You Look Tonight, which had Candle in the Wind ’97 on the B-side, became the biggest selling single of all time, with 45 million copies sold. All royalties and proceeds were donated to the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.
The 2000s
In 2002, Alessandro Safina sang Your Song again, accompanied by John, and in the same year, he supported the boy band Blue, who covered his old hit Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word. They reached number one in the UK together. John also features on the chorus of posthumous 2Pac hit Ghetto Gospel, which samples his song Indian Sunset (from the album Madman Across the Water), which also topped the charts in the UK and Australia. At the 2001 Grammy Awards, Elton John performed with rapper Eminem, despite the latter having made homophobic comments in the past. Since then, the two have been friends. John helped the rapper with his drug rehabilitation therapy.
After the album Songs from the West Coast in 2001, the album Peachtree Road was released in 2004. The critics praised this album, stating that John had finally returned to his roots and to high compositional quality.
In 2003, the single “Are You Ready for Love” (originally recorded in 1979 during the Thom Bell sessions) reached number one on the UK charts.
In 2003, Elton John (music) and Bernie Taupin (lyrics) were nominated for the BFCA Award and the Golden Globe in the “Best Song” category for the song The Heart of Every Girl, which they had written for the film Mona Lisa Smile. In addition, Elton John received a Golden Satellite Award nomination for the same song.
In September 2006, the album The Captain and the Kid was released, which was once again created in collaboration with Bernie Taupin.
Elton John celebrated his 60th birthday on March 25, 2007, with a concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden. At the same time, this was also his 60th concert in this arena – a record. The compilation CD Rocket Man – The Definitive Hits was released the next day.
In 2007, John was also involved in the Scissor Sisters’ biggest success to date: he contributed the piano passages to their European hit “I Don’t Feel Like Dancing.”
In the winter of 2009 and spring of 2010, Elton John and Leon Russell were in the studio to record a new album with the renowned producer T-Bone Burnett. The album is called The Union and was released worldwide in October 2010. The first single, “If It Wasn’t for Bad,” from the album was released on August 24, 2010, as an e-single in the USA.
At the beginning of July 2011, Elton John founded a new music company: the “Rocket Music Entertainment Group.” In addition to Elton John himself, the company also looks after the marketing of James Blunt, Lily Allen and Leon Russell, among others. The company also includes its own record label and publishing company, Rocket Records and Rocket Music Publishing.
In an interview with Music Week magazine, Elton John revealed that he will begin recording another album with lyricist Bernie Taupin and producer T-Bone Burnett in January 2012. The album will be called The Diving Board. A book written by Elton John himself was also published, in which he talks about his experiences with AIDS and aims to raise awareness about the disease.
In February 2016, the album Wonderful Crazy Nite was released.
In September 2017, Elton John appeared in a cameo role in Matthew Vaughn’s British spy film Kingsman: The Golden Circle, in which he plays himself and is held hostage by the deranged drug baroness Poppy Adams, played by Julianne Moore. Taron Egerton, who played the young hero in that Kingsman film franchise, plays Elton John in Dexter Fletcher’s 2019 biopic Rocketman.
On January 24, 2018, Elton John announced that he would be retiring from the stage after a final, three-year-long world tour. The tour is called “Farewell – Yellow Brick Road.” The tour began in September 2018 and is set to include over 300 concerts worldwide. At the start of sales on February 2, 2018, concert tickets for the first 60 shows were already sold out within a few hours.
Elton John also contributed to the CGI-supported live-action adaptation of Disney’s The Lion King, which was released in the summer of 2019.
The Elton John Band
Since 1970, Elton John’s band, of which he is the lead singer and pianist, has been known as the Elton John Band. Since then, there have been a number of changes in the band, but Nigel Olsson, Davey Johnstone and Ray Cooper have been there, on and off, since 1969 (Olsson) and 1972 (Johnstone and Cooper). Olsson left the band in 1984, but returned in 2000.
Ray Cooper, however, is not a permanent member of the Elton John band, as he also takes on engagements as a studio or touring musician with other artists.
Personal life
Elton John has a very eventful biography. In 1976, he came out as bisexual in the music magazine Rolling Stone; in 1984, he married the German sound engineer Renate Blauel in Australia and divorced her in 1988. Later, he came out as homosexual. On December 21, 2005, the first day on which, following a change in the law in Great Britain, same-sex couples were allowed to enter into a civil partnership, John entered into a civil partnership with his long-term partner David Furnish. The ceremony took place in Windsor and was conducted by Clair Williams, the same registrar who married Prince Charles and Camilla. On December 21, 2014, their civil partnership was converted into a marriage in a private ceremony.
On December 25, 2010, a surrogate mother gave birth to Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John in a clinic in California. He is the son of Elton John and David Furnish. Both are the biological fathers; they themselves do not know who it is. On January 11, 2013, Elijah Joseph Daniel Furnish-John was born in California to the same surrogate mother. The godmother of both children is the close family friend Lady Gaga.
Since 1999, Elton John has been wearing a pacemaker.
Elton John has four younger half-brothers on his father’s side.
Foundation
Under the impression of the death of the teenager Ryan White, who died of AIDS, Elton John founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992 in the United States and in 1993 in the United Kingdom. The foundation, which supports information, education and research, was initially funded by Elton John thru his sales proceeds, concerts and private auctions. To date, the foundation has raised around 275 million dollars, which has benefited projects in over 50 countries. Elton John still holds large charity concerts, donating the proceeds to his foundation.
Honors
In 1995, Elton John was appointed Commander (CBE) in the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. On February 24, 1998, he was also elevated to the personal British nobility as a Knight Bachelor and has since held the title “Sir.” In 2002, Sir Elton John received an honorary doctorate from the Royal Academy of Music in London, and in 2006, he was declared a Disney Legend. In addition, he is an honorary member of the English football club FC Liverpool. In 2013, John was awarded the first Brits Icon Award. In 2014, a stand at Watford Stadium was named after him.
In 2019, he was appointed a Knight of the French Legion of Honor by President Macron.
