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A former student of the Royal Academy of Music in London, England, the man born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in 1947 left school and immediately began his path in the music industry. His first band, Bluesology, was formed in 1961. He would later take his stage name from the Bluesology saxophonist Elton Dean and their charismatic frontman, Long John Baldry. Elton John was introduced to Bernie Taupin in 1967 by Ray Williams at Liberty Records. Amazingly, their first compositions were conducted by mail. In 1968 they became staff songwriters for Dick James' DJM label, farming out music to budding pop stars. Elton and Bernie's prolific nature was established early in his career. By the time Elton's self-titled breakthrough album and evergreen hit Your Song had introduced him to an international stage in 1970, they had honed their skill to such a degree that Bernie could turn out a lyric in half an hour and Elton could compose to it within the hour. In the period between 1970-76, with producer Gus Dudgeon at the helm, they made an astonishing fourteen albums including Elton John, Tumbleweed Connection, Madman Across The Water, Honky Chateau, Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only The Piano Player, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Caribou and Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy. Amongst these, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy was the first album ever to enter the Billboard Chart at Number One. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, with its string of American Number One hit singles and unbroken two month run at the top of the Billboard Top 100, became an all- time classic. In 1974 Elton performed on John Lennon's comeback single Whatever Gets You Through The Night, and later that year was joined by Lennon onstage at New York's Madison Square Garden. This performance, always cited by Elton as one of the most memorable of his entire career, was to be John Lennon's final concert. In the late 1970s Elton's partnership with Bernie Taupin came to a temporary standstill, and he worked with other lyricists. A Single Man provided a fortuitous musical hook-up with Gary Osborne, and his 1977 sessions with Philly Soul producer Thom Bell gave him with a Number One UK hit in 2003 with Are You Ready For Love, when it was re-released due to demand from influential British DJs. This is an ongoing pattern. Elton has always been given credit from unlikely quarters. The filmmaker Cameron Crowe immortalised Tiny Dancer in Almost Famous, and then featured My Father's Gun (from the 1970 album Tumbleweed Connection) in the movie Elizabethtown. Producer Eminem sampled Elton and Bernie's 1970 composition, Indian Sunset on Tupac's single, Ghetto Gospel, and who would forget Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman's duet of Your Song in Baz Lehrman's Moulin Rouge. In 1980 Elton and Bernie were reunited for the album 21 At 33. The album swiftly reacquainted Elton with the Top Ten and was followed by Jump Up! with the smash single Blue Eyes and Lennon tribute Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny), This return to peak form continued with Too Low For Zero, the home of two of Elton's live favourites to this day, I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues and I'm Still Standing, his valedictory song to the troubles he had gone through. http://www.eltonjohn.com/about/bio.jsp#ataglance
Author: MHSClassOf1966
Keywords: rock pop
Added: February 17, 2009
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