Other landmark awards include Best British Male Artist Brit Award 1991 induction into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 five Grammy Awards 1986-2000 Grammy Legend Award, 2001 Kennedy Center Honor, 2004 11 Ivor Novello Awards between 19 and in 1998, a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II.Ģ007 saw the release of ‘Rocket Man - The Definitive Hits’, a single CD album which features eighteen classic hit songs. In 2002 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Royal Academy of Music. The 2001 album ‘Songs From The West Coast’ gave him another smash hit single with ‘I Want Love’. In the 1980s he had hits with the albums ‘21 At 3’, ‘Jump Up!’ and ‘Too Low For Zero’ - the home of two of Elton's live favourites, ‘I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues’ and ‘I'm Still Standing’.įive decades since the 1969 release of his first album, ‘Empty Sky’, Elton John is creating some of the finest music of his career. In 1970 Elton's self-titled breakthrough album and evergreen hit ‘Your Song’ introduced him to an international stage, and in the period between 1970-76 with producer Gus Dudgeon at the helm, Elton and his song writing partner Bernie Taupin they made an astonishing fourteen albums, including the legendary’ Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,’ and ‘Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy’ - the first album ever to enter the Billboard Chart at Number One. Since his career began in 1969, Elton has played over 3,000 concerts worldwide. Elton has sold more than 250 million records worldwide, and holds the record for the biggest selling single of all time, ‘Candle in the Wind ’97’, which sold over 33 million copies.
He is one of the top-selling solo artists of all time, achieving 35 gold and 25 platinum albums, and he has had 29 consecutive US Top 40 hits. It contained the US number 1 "Bennie and the Jets", along with the hits "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", "Candle in the Wind", "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" and "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding".The monumental career of international singer/songwriter and performer Elton John has spanned more than five decades. It also temporarily established John as a glam rock star. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, released in October 1973, gained instant critical acclaim and topped the chart on both sides of the Atlantic, remaining at number one for two months. The album produced the hits "Crocodile Rock", his first US Billboard Hot 100 number one, and "Daniel", which reached number two in the US.
The pop album Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player came out at the start of 1973 and reached number one in the UK, the US and Australia, among other countries. In 1972, Honky Château became John's first US number one album, spending five weeks at the top of the Billboard 200, and began a streak of seven consecutive US number-one albums. John and Taupin then wrote the soundtrack to the 1971 film Friends and then the album Madman Across the Water, which reached number eight in the US and included the hit songs "Levon" and the album's opening track, "Tiny Dancer".
Keeping up a blistering pace, 11–17–70 was recorded from a live performance aired from A&R Studios on WABC-FM in New York City. The concept album Tumbleweed Connection was released in October 1970 reaching number five in the US. In 1970, his first hit single, "Your Song", from his second album, Elton John, reached the top ten in the UK and the US.Įlton John's first American concert took place at the Troubadour in Los Angeles on August 25, 1970.
In 1969, John's debut album, Empty Sky, was released. For two years, they wrote songs for artists including Lulu, and John worked as a session musician for different artists including the Hollies. He met his longtime musical partner Bernie Taupin in 1967, after they both answered an advertisement for songwriters. Reginald Dwight - known to us as Elton John - learned to play piano at an early age, and by 1962 had formed Bluesology, an R&B band with whom he played until 1967.