Elton John

Elton John (born March 25, 1947, Pinner, Middlesex, England) is a British singer, composer, and pianist who became one of the most popular entertainers of the late 20th century with such indelible hit songs as “Rocket Man,” “Crocodile Rock,” and “Candle in the Wind.” He fused as many strands of popular music and stylistic showmanship as Elvis Presley in a concert and recording career that includes the sale of hundreds of millions of records. John’s superstar status extended well into the 21st century, and he influenced many other singer-songwriters and musicians, including George Michael, Bruce Hornsby, Rufus Wainwright, Miley Cyrus, and Brandi Carlile. As one of the first male pop stars to come out as gay, John also blazed a trail for many queer recording artists.

Becoming Elton John

Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, he was a child prodigy on the piano and awarded a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music at 11. Gravitating toward pop after discovering rhythm and blues, he joined Bluesology, later John Baldry’s backing band, in the mid-1960s. He met his major songwriting collaborator, Bernie Taupin, after both responded to an advertisement in a trade magazine, by which time Dwight was performing under the name Elton John. His stage name is a blend of the names of two of Bluesology’s members: saxophonist Elton Dean and John Baldry.

In 1968 John scored his first British recording success with “Lady Samantha.” His first American album, Elton John, was released in 1970 and immediately established him as a major international star.

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Musical and performing style

Throughout his career John has demonstrated a supreme talent for assimilating and blending diverse pop and rock styles into a propulsive, streamlined sound that is extroverted, energetic, and somewhat impersonal. His recordings were among the first to homogenize electric guitar and acoustic piano with synthesized instrumentation. His vocal style, with its Southern accent and gospel inflections, is strongly American-influenced, as is his pianism, an ornate, gospel-flavored elaboration of the stylings of Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis.

John’s first American hit, “Your Song,” in 1970, was a love ballad that combines the introspective mood of the era’s singer-songwriters with a more traditional pop craftsmanship. John’s early 1970s recordings pay homage to country rock and folk rock models such as the Band and Crosby, Stills and Nash.

Superstardom and showmanship

By 1973 John was one of the world’s best-selling pop performers. His typical compositions, written with Taupin, were affectionate parodies and pastiches of everything from the Rolling Stones (“The Bitch Is Back” [1974]) to Frank Sinatra ballads (“Blue Eyes” [1982]) to 1950s rock and roll (“Crocodile Rock” [1972]) to Philadelphia soul (“Philadelphia Freedom” [1975]). He also demonstrated deeper musical ambitions in longer works such as “Burn Down the Mission” on Tumbleweed Connection (1971) and “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973). Other notable songs from this period include “Rocket Man” on Honky Château (1972) and “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” on Caribou (1974).

Beginning in 1976 with the album Blue Moves, his rock influences became less pronounced, and a more churchlike English pop style emerged in ballads such as “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word” (1976), which typifies the staid declamatory aura of his mature ballads. In the late 1970s and ’80s, as he experimented with other collaborators, his music lost some of its freshness and his popularity dipped a bit, but he remained an extremely popular mainstream entertainer who brought into the pop arena an old-fashioned gaudily costumed flamboyance reminiscent of the Las Vegas piano legend Liberace. At the same time, John was recognized as a natural showman in his own right, frequently appearing onstage in elaborate wigs and rhinestone-encrusted sunglasses. His flair for the outlandish made him a great concert draw.

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Compositions for film and stage

In the 1990s John was the first male pop star to declare his homosexuality, suffering no noticeable career damage. (Earlier in his career he had told Rolling Stone that he was bisexual, an admission that he later explained was a compromise, for fear of losing fans.) With lyricist Tim Rice he wrote songs for the film The Lion King (1994), and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” won the Academy Award for best original song; the movie was adapted into a Broadway musical in 1997 (see The Lion King). That same year, a new version of his 1973 song “Candle in the Wind,” which commemorates movie legend Marilyn Monroe, was revised by Taupin to mourn the death of Diana, princess of Wales. The new version became one of the most successful pop singles in history, selling more than 30 million copies.

In 1998 John reteamed with Rice to write the stage musical Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida (revised in 1999 as Aida), a loose adaptation of the Giuseppe Verdi opera. John and Taupin wrote the musical Lestat (2005), based on a series of vampire novels by Anne Rice, and John composed the score for Billy Elliot, a stage adaptation of the popular 2000 film. That musical premiered in London’s West End in 2005 and made its Broadway debut in 2008. The following year it won 10 Tony Awards, including best musical.

Later career and albums

From 2003 to 2009 John had an open engagement at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The show, titled Elton John and the Red Piano, was a multimedia retrospective of his career, with visuals provided by photographer David LaChapelle. John began a second Las Vegas residency, titled The Million Dollar Piano, which ran from 2011 to 2018.

John continued to release recordings, including Peachtree Road (2004), The Union (2010; a duet album with Leon Russell), Wonderful Crazy Night (2016), and Who Believes in Angels? (2025, with country performer Brandi Carlile). He also contributed soundtracks to the animated movies The Road to El Dorado (2000) and Gnomeo & Juliet (2011).

In 2018 John embarked on what he announced as his final tour, dubbed Farewell Yellow Brick Road and scheduled to last three years. However, the tour was suspended in 2020 because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. During the break, John recorded his 32nd studio album, The Lockdown Sessions (2021), which includes collaborations with such musicians as Stevie Wonder, Eddie Vedder (of Pearl Jam), and Miley Cyrus. The tour resumed in 2022. One event of the tour was livestreamed for the special Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium. In 2024 it won an Emmy Award for outstanding variety special; the win made John one of a very small number of EGOT winners, people who have won all four of the major performing-arts awards in North America: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.

During this time Rocketman (2019), a film based on his life, was released. John and Taupin wrote the single “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” for the biopic, and it won an Academy Award for best original song.

Charity work and honors

John established the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992 and has since donated all royalties from his singles sales to AIDS research. An exception was the 1997 version of “Candle in the Wind,” the proceeds for which went to Princess Diana’s favorite charities.

John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, and in 1998 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2004 and a National Humanities Medal from U.S. Pres. Joe Biden in 2022. Two years later John and Taupin were honored with the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. John’s autobiography, Me, was published in 2019. In 2025 the U.S. Library of Congress added Goodbye Yellow Brick Road to the National Recording Registry, a list of audio recordings deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”