Performing on the Pyramid Stage, John closed the festival with a two hour performance which saw Pinball Wizard played live for the first time in over 10 years. On 25 June 2023, John headlined the Glastonbury Festival. Which is such a shame as the world would be a much happier place if there were more Reggies. They don’t make Elton Johns anymore name me one other artist who writes his own music, can look good dressed as Donald Duck, wears oversized pink spectacles, and is still taken seriously. I’m so pleased Reggie didn’t take his father’s advice and get a day job, and I’m sure the 30+ million people who’ve bought Goodbye Yellow Brick Road would agree. When the two first met, six months later, Dwight was going by the name “Elton John” in homage to Bluesology saxophonist Elton Dean and Long John Baldry.
In 1967, what would become the first Elton John/Bernie Taupin song, “Scarecrow”, was recorded. Dwight wrote music for the lyrics and then mailed it to Taupin, beginning a partnership that still continues to this day. At their first meeting, Williams gave Dwight a stack of lyrics written by Bernie Taupin, who had answered the same ad. In 1966, the band became Long John Baldry’s supporting band.ĭwight answered an advertisement in the New Musical Express placed by Ray Williams, then the A&R manager for Liberty Records. By the mid-1960s, Bluesology was backing touring American soul and R&B musicians like The Isley Brothers, Major Lance, Billy Stewart, Doris Troy, and Patti LaBelle and The Bluebelles. In 1964, Dwight and his friends formed a band called Bluesology. Known simply as “Reggie”, he played a range of popular standards, including songs by Jim Reeves and Ray Charles, as well as songs he had written himself.
At the age of 15, with the help of his mother and stepfather, Reginald became a weekend pianist at a nearby pub, the Northwood Hills Hotel, playing Thursday to Sunday nights for £35 a week and tips. He said, “No thanks, I don’t smoke but I love fags,” to which I didn’t get the joke and proceeded to make a complete fool of myself.īack to Elton. The only goof I made was when after the meal I offered Elton a cigarette. We talked for ages about his two passions: music and football. Elton was the perfect host and by chance, I happened to sit opposite him during dinner. I was in my early 20s and I’d never met anyone so famous before. I was working there at the time, blagged some tickets to see him in concert, and through a friend was invited back to his hotel for drinks and dinner with Elton and his band. I was lucky enough to meet him once in the middle of winter in 1982, in a very cold Helsinki, Finland. Okay, Bob and Bruce never wore platform boots, ridiculous glasses or bright yellow satin pants, but maybe they should have!Įlton John is an entertainer and a great musician. I remember hearing “Your Song” for the very first time and like Dylan and Springsteen, you knew there was something special about that voice. I’ll be honest here, I don’t own one Elton John record, but I know his music so well, from the radio, TV, and, well… I grew up listening to Elton John.
No “Your Song”, “Daniel”, “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting”, “Rocket Man”, “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”, “Crocodile Rock”, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”. That’s a very sad thought I can’t imagine a world without the music of Elton John. That’s an interesting thought – Elton John working behind a desk in a high street bank, humming the tunes in his head that the world would never hear. His father, who served as a squadron leader in the Royal Air Force, tried to steer him toward a more conventional career, such as banking. He was educated at Pinner Wood Junior School, Reddiford School, and Pinner County Grammar School until age 17 when he left just prior to his A Level examinations to pursue a career in the music industry. Reginald was raised in Pinner, Middlesex in the council house of his maternal grandparents. Recorded at the Château d’Hérouville, the album contains the Marilyn Monroe tribute, “Candle in the Wind”, as well as three successful singles: “Bennie and the Jets”, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, and “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”. In 1973, Elton John was at No.1 on the US album chart with Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, the singer’s seventh album and third US No.1.
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