Sir Elton John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, 25 March 1947) is an English singer, songwriter, composer, pianist, record producer, and occasional actor. In his five-decade career Elton John has sold more than 300 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. He has seven consecutive No. 1 US albums; for 31 consecutive years (1970–2000) he had at least one song in the Billboard Hot 100. His single “Something About the Way You Look Tonight”/“Candle in the Wind 1997” sold over 33 million copies worldwide and is the best-selling single of all time. In 1992, he established the Elton John AIDS Foundation and a year later began hosting the annual Academy Award Party, which has since become one of the highest-profile Oscar parties in the Hollywood film industry. He continues to be a champion for LGBT social movements worldwide, and same-sex marriage. (More from Wikipedia)
The extravagant glasses that Elton John has worn throughout his decades-long career all started when young Reg Dwight began wearing glasses in his teens “not because he needed them, but in homage to Buddy Holly”, as Philip Norman wrote in his biography of the English legend. Lead singer Freddie Garrity of Freddie and the Dreamers is another British star who wore Buddy Holly glasses on stage; in the 1970’s, pub-music star Elvis Costello was doing the same. Allmusic describes Freddie and the Dreamers as “the clowns of the British Invasion” due to their outlandish hits like “Do the Freddie”, but there is a lot more to them than that (though I will have to get into that another time).
(June 2013/1)
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Melissa Etheridge’s male counterpart in the rock world, Elton John has been openly gay for many years and is the largest selling recording artist of all time. His tribute to Princess Diana, “Candle in the Wind 1997” alone has sold 33 million copies, more than any other single in history. This song opens with the words “Goodbye English Rose” and is a rewrite of a song called “Candle in the Wind” from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973) that was in honor of Marilyn Monroe.
Though there are other prominent openly gay and lesbian celebrities – Ellen DeGeneres comes immediately to mind, plus any number of actors and actresses – I am aware of no other household names among active rock musicians. While Melissa Etheridge and Elton John remain beloved performers, the same could be said of Liberace back in the 1950’s (though of course, he was not openly gay). Most other lesbian and gay rockers are well outside the mainstream – not that there is anything wrong with that.
(January 2014)
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In 1969, Mick Farren “liberated” the earliest large-scale rock concert in the U.K., the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival by encouraging the fences to be torn down. This concert – which took place the month after Woodstock (and with many of the same acts) – featured the Who, the Band, Free, Joe Cocker, and the Moody Blues. But the real excitement was caused by the inclusion on the bill of Bob Dylan, who had been little seen since his near-fatal motorcycle accident in July 1966. When Dylan took the stage, audience members included three of the Beatles, three of the Beatle wives, three of the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Liz Taylor, Richard Burton, Jane Fonda, Roger Vadim, Syd Barrett, and Elton John.
One of the main reasons for the location of the original Woodstock was to lure Bob Dylan out of hiding – the idea was to throw a huge party practically on his doorstep that surely he couldn’t resist attending. Woodstock is the name of the town where Dylan lived (and also members of the Band); the festival itself was in Bethel. But resist he did; Bob Dylan instead signed up to appear at the Isle of Wight Festival and set sail for England on August 15, 1969, the day that Woodstock opened.
In 1969, lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Caleb Quaye (vocals, guitar, keyboards) formed a band called Hookfoot with former Soul Agents Ian Duck (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Dave Glover (bass guitar) and Roger Pope (drums). Quaye had previously been in one of the final incarnations of Long John Baldry’s band Bluesology (whose previous members included Elton John when he was still known as Reg Dwight – in fact, the “John” in his stage name is in tribute to Long John Baldry).
The bandmembers in Hookfoot met while working as house musicians at DJM Records, which had also signed Elton John in the same time period. Caleb Quaye and Roger Pope were part of the backing band for Elton John on his debut album, Empty Sky (1969); and everyone in Hookfoot was on hand for his third album, Tumbleweed Junction (1970). In 1972, Hookfoot released an album called Good Times A’ Comin’ on DJM Records (A&M Records in the States).
(May 2014)
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On October 7, 2014, a remarkable assemblage of musicians came together under the name “The Impossible Orchestra” to perform the Beach Boys song “God Only Knows”. The event was simulcast on BBC Television and BBC Radio stations in order to herald the launch of BBC Music, and the event also made national news in this country. A recording of the song was released on a single the following day as a fund-raising effort for Children in Need 2014. The musicians span the spectrum of popular music and included Brian Wilson, Pharrell Williams, One Direction, Lorde, Chrissie Hynde, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Chris Martin, Kylie Minogue, Dave Grohl, Brian May, and many others.
(October 2014)
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By September 1963, the Rolling Stones had outgrown the local club scene and had begun to tour; their replacement at the Crawdaddy Club was another of the major British Invasion bands, the Yardbirds, whose line-up at that time included Eric Clapton. Other major bands and artists who performed at this club include Led Zeppelin, Long John Baldry, Elton John, and Rod Stewart.
(January 2015/2)
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Like Rare Earth though, most were new to the music scene, such as Kiki Dee; she was the first female artist from England that was signed to Motown Records, though Kiki Dee had better success with Elton John’s label Rocket Records, including the 1974 hit “I’ve Got the Music in Me” and her well-known duet with Elton John on the 1976 hit “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”.
(April 2015/1)
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