![]() That same year, John launched his own record label, Rocket Records.Īs his sales soared, John cultivated a colorfully outrageous and campy stage persona that drove audiences wild and provided plenty of fodder for the tabloids. Besides the classic title track, it contained "Candle in the Wind, " a winsome ode to Marilyn Monroe. ![]() The seminal double album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was released in 1973. (It topped out at number two in England.) Other smash singles soon followed, including "Daniel" and "Crocodile Rock, " both of which appeared on the album Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player-John's first number-one album in both the United States and the United Kingdom. "Rocket Man" was his first number-one single in America. But the watershed year for John was 1972. His self-titled second album spawned his first hit single, "Your Song, " which climbed into the top ten in both America and the United Kingdom. The advent of the 1970s saw John's fortunes improve dramatically. That same year, he played piano on the classic Hollies single, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother." In 1969, John released his debut album, Empty Sky, which was a commercial flop. Even though they lost out when it was not chosen to be performed, they continued to write and record new material, including the early singles "Skyline Pigeon" and "Lady Samantha, " which sold moderately well. One of their earliest pieces managed to land on the short list for the British entry to the 1969 Eurovision contest. In 1968, an advertisement in the British music magazine NME seeking writers and performers brought John together with Bernie Taupin, the man who would become his on-again, off-again songwriting collaborator. Much later in his life, John added the middle name Hercules. It was during this same period that John picked up his stage name, which was a combination of the middle name of Bluesology's singer, Long John Baldry, and the first name of the saxophone player, Elton Dean. To supplement his income, John also played the piano in bars and clubs and eventually joined forces with a band called Bluesology.īluesology had some success backing up soul artists such as Doris Troy and Patti LaBelle until around the mid-1960s. He first went to work for a music publishing house, where he served as a messenger and tea server. Graduating from the London Academy of Music when he quit school to pursue his dream. He was just two weeks away from taking his final exams and John embarked on a musical career in the early 1960s. "Image" thus became an obsession of John's at a young age and remained an issue well into his adulthood. An only child who was somewhat overweight and wore glasses, he was acutely sensitive to his appearance and how others perceived him. John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on March 25, 1947, in the town of Pinner in the Middlesex region of England. (His poignant tribute to his friend Diana, Princess of Wales, who died in a car crash during the summer of 1997, became the number-one selling single of all time, with proceeds earmarked for the charitable trust established in Diana's name.) As a result, John has finally been able to lay to rest much of the controversy and negative press that dogged him earlier in his career. Since the early 1990s, he has donated all of the royalties from the sales of his singles to charity (most notably AIDS research) in both the United Kingdom and the United States. He toned down the glitz and glitter both on stage and off, overcame his dependencies and eating disorder, and turned his attention to concerns other than himself. His spectacular theatrics may have earned him legions of fans and a generous income, but they also thrust him into the media spotlight on numerous occasions as reporters scrutinized his sexual orientation, his lavish lifestyle, his addictions to drugs and alcohol, and his bulimia.Īs he approached middle age, however, John began to take stock of his life and career. At one time, his image was that of a flamboyantly over-the-top "glam rocker" with an undeniable gift for crafting memorable pop tunes. Ever since he first burst on the music scene in the early 1970s, Elton John has been alternately adored, abhorred, commended, and criticized.
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