Elton John

Elton John is one of the best-selling and most enduring artists in the history of popular music, a flamboyant pianist and showman whose songs have soundtracked more than five decades. Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on March 25, 1947, in Pinner, on the edge of London, he was a piano prodigy who won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music as a child. With more than 300 million records sold, a catalogue built on his songwriting partnership with lyricist Bernie Taupin, and a trophy case that includes five Grammys, two Academy Awards, a Tony and an Emmy, he became in 2024 one of the small group of artists to achieve EGOT status.

From Reg Dwight to Elton John

As a teenager he played in the blues band Bluesology, working day jobs and backing touring American soul acts. He built his stage name from two of the band’s members, saxophonist Elton Dean and singer Long John Baldry. In 1967 he answered a record-label advertisement seeking songwriters and was paired with Bernie Taupin, a young lyricist who had answered the same ad. The two began an unusual long-distance method of writing, with Taupin producing lyrics on his own and John setting them to music separately. His debut album, Empty Sky, appeared in 1969, but it was the self-titled Elton John in 1970, and its single “Your Song,” that made him an international star.

A run of classics

The 1970s belonged to him. Across a remarkable string of albums, including Honky Château and the sprawling Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, he produced “Rocket Man,” “Tiny Dancer,” “Crocodile Rock,” “Bennie and the Jets,” “Daniel” and the title track of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. His blend of rock, pop, gospel and balladry, paired with outlandish costumes and glasses, made him both a critical favorite and a stadium-filling spectacle. The partnership with Taupin became one of the most celebrated in songwriting, mentioned alongside Lennon and McCartney or Jagger and Richards.

Film, stage and a record-breaking single

John’s reach extended well beyond his own albums. With lyricist Tim Rice he wrote the songs for Disney’s 1994 film The Lion King, winning an Academy Award for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” and he later composed the scores for the stage musicals Aida and Billy Elliot. In 1997 he reworked his 1973 song “Candle in the Wind” as a tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, and performed it at her funeral; the resulting single became the best-selling single in chart history, with proceeds donated to charity. A 2019 biopic, Rocketman, brought his life story to a new audience.

Survival and recognition

John’s career has also been a story of survival. He came out as gay, sought treatment for drug and alcohol addiction in 1990 and has been sober since, and founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992, which has raised hundreds of millions of dollars. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and knighted in 1998. His Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, which ended in 2023, became the highest-grossing tour ever staged, and the following year, with an Emmy win, he completed his EGOT. He continues to champion younger artists, collaborating with many of them late in his career.

The showman

Elton John’s records would have made him a star on their own, but his live persona turned him into a phenomenon. His 1970 debut at the Troubadour in Los Angeles is remembered as the night he broke through in America, and from there his concerts grew ever more theatrical, full of feathers, sequins and oversized glasses. He has said the wild costumes were a release after a strict, restrained childhood. Over the decades he set records few performers approach, including one of the longest runs of Top 40 hits in American chart history, and he became as recognizable for his showmanship and his outspoken personality, including his ownership of the football club Watford, as for any single song.

Six decades of hits

Few artists have stayed relevant as long. In 2021 Elton John became the first solo performer to score UK Top 10 singles across six different decades, a span that started in the early 1970s and reached into the streaming age. He has actively sought out younger collaborators, recording the 2021 album The Lockdown Sessions with a roster of contemporary stars and mentoring artists such as Lady Gaga. His Emmy-winning 2022 concert special, filmed at Dodger Stadium, capped the farewell tour and completed the set of awards that made him an EGOT, sealing a career that bridged the vinyl era and the digital one. Through every reinvention, the songs themselves, built on Taupin’s words and John’s melodies, have remained the constant that keeps drawing new listeners in.

Most loved songs

A spread across his catalogue. Each title opens through the in-site player.

From tender ballads to glam-rock stompers, Elton John’s songs have stayed in the culture for half a century. If one of them is stuck in your head, type it into the search box above to find the track.