A famous British pop-rock singer, composer, songwriter and pianist is one of the best and most successful artists in the UK and world. A future artist was born and raised in the family of a pilot and a housewife in 1947.
The Dwights lived in a neighborhood with Elton’s grandparents, who actually paid more attention to the upbringing of the guy than his own father. Thus, young Regie had extra weight, wore glasses and was afraid of his father. His mother, in contrast, was rather tolerant and progressive and constantly brought vinyls, which formed her son’s love for music. In early childhood, Reginald listened to jazz singer Kay Starr, Billy May and country singer Tennessee Erny Ford. Being a 3 years old boy, he managed to learn complicated values by heart and was gifted with a secondhand piano. Eight years later, the talented guy entered the Royal Conservatory and became the youngest scholar of it. At the same time, the relationships between the parents become worse and worse and this leads to the feeling of quality in their son. It was obvious his parents should divorce, so it happened in 1960. Both his parents got married again, but Elton’s step-father supported him in his music undertakings, while his biological father criticized the guy for giving up his work at the bank.
Reginald decided to leave the Conservatory 2 weeks before graduating from it and fully devoted himself to the musical career and rock and roll music. He joined a music recording company, played piano in several bars and became a member of a Bluesology band. At this time, Regie chose a nickname we know him now - Elton John, borrowing parts of names of his co-members of the band.
At the age of 20, Elton met Berny Topin and they both came to the auditions held by Liberty Records A&R label, which was searching for new talents. The boys failed to impress the label representatives but started to work together: Berny was writing soul-touching extraordinary lyrics while Elton created amazing musical arrangements for them. Their collaboration was pretty productive: they made up over 30 albums and a debut song “Your Song”. The song was included in Elton John’s second self-titled album, which met the world in 1970. During his career, Elton experienced both ups and downs. For instance, the single “I’ve Been Loving You” as well as his first album “Empty Sky” failed to make an impression on the audience, while the second album was nominated for Grammy as the Best Album of the Year.
The beginning of the 1970s brought an additional dose of success to the promising star: Elton got to know Steve Brown and with the help of Steve’s protection he appeared on the radio and was invited to perform in the US. At this time, Elton John’s dream came true - he met and got acquainted with his favorite singer and composer - Leon Russel. In a month, the star toured the US again and it was a huge success. The artist is also known for his extravagant style, unusual costumes and a great variety of glasses. Though critics did not believe in his long term success, Elton became more and more popular. The single “Candle in the Wind” in honour of Merylin Monroe was included in the list of the Best 500 songs by Rolling Stone. The very album with 17 songs in it has got both positive and quite controversial feedback, however it was later on called the best on Elton’s discography.
In 1974 British star performed along with John Lennon on the Madison Square Garden stage, where they blew up the public with The Beatles’ songs.
2 years later Elton John releases his album, which is considered to be the saddest “Blue Moves” with 18 songs in it: “One Horse Town”, “Crazy Water”, “Out of the Blue”, “Bite Your Lip” etc.
In 1980 the musician gave an unforgettable free concert to 400 thousand of his fans in New York, performing his rare songs, such as “White Lady White Powder” and John Lennon’s hit “Imagine”.
In the end of 1980s, Elton got married to Renata Blauel and used to smoke weed because of family troubles, which led to the cord surgery and slight change in the voice timbre.
1990 was a crucial year for the artist: together with Michael Jackson he took care of an AIDS positive boy, who unfortunately passed away. This event made Elton to start his treatment against alcoholism, drug abuse and declared himself as a homosecsualist. At the same period, he became deeply involved in charity and established his Elton John AIDS Foundation.
1994 was marked by the creation of a soundtrack “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” to the “King Lion” cartoon. The song has got Oscar and Grammy awards. During the last 20 years, a world famous star has collaborated a lot with other renowned artists: Eminem, Queen, Ed Sheeran, Lady Gaga, etc.
