History Music / EltonJohn

->Captain Fantastic, raised and regimented\\

Just someone his mother might know.\\
-- "Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy"

* TheAlcoholic: "Elderberry Wine", "Social Disease", "Talking Old Soldiers" and "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" depict this in song. Elton's main lyricist Bernie Taupin sobered up in RealLife in the [[TheSeventies late '70's]], Elton himself by 1990.

* AnythingThatMoves: He led a promiscuous sex life in the 1970's and 1980's.

* CampFollower: "Sweet Painted Lady".

** "I Think I'm Going To Kill Myself" [[PlayedForLaughs attempts to play this trope for laughs]]. [[BlackComedy Complete with a tap-dance solo in the middle eight]].

* EpicInstrumentalOpener: "Funeral For a Friend".
* EpicRocking: "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding"; "Carla/Etude/Fanfare/Chloe"; "Tonight"; "Gulliver/Hay Chewed/Reprise".

*** ......Erm, has everyone forgotten 'Candle in the Wind'? Considering it was written about the death of one of the iconic women of the 20th century (MarilynMonroe) and repurposed for another (Princess Diana) it's arguably the most famous of his grief songs.

** "I'm Going To Be A Teenage Idol" from ''Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player'' is a depiction of one. It was written in tribute to Elton's friend Music/MarcBolan at the height of "[=TRexstacy=]".

* LyricalDissonance: "I Think I'm Going To Kill Myself", "When God Invented Girls", Angeline".
* {{Medley}}: "Yell Help/Wednesday Night/Ugly" from ''Rock Of The Westies"; "Gulliver/Hay Chewed/Reprise" on ''Empty Sky"; "Carla/Etude/Fanfare/Chloe" on ''The Fox''.

** "I'm Going To Be A Teenage Idol" from ''Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player'' is a depiction of one. It was written in tribute to Elton's friend MarcBolan at the height of "[=TRexstacy=]".
* JohnLennon: Worked with for a brief time in the mid-1970s. Lennon played on Elton's cover of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and Elton played on Lennon's single "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night". Lennon promised to appear onstage with Elton if "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night" made #1, and after it did (the only solo #1 single Lennon had in his lifetime) Lennon kept his promise and appeared onstage with Elton in 1974.

* TheOner: The videos for "This Train Don't Stop Here Anymore"[[note]]Although not a ''complete'' one: there is a cut after Elton wanders off and his manager fights with someone else.[[/note]] and "I Want Love".

* TheOner: The videos for "This Train Don't Stop Here Anymore" and "I Want Love".

* DeadpanSnarker: He and Bernie Taupin definitely show signs of this, Elton in interviews and on talk whows, Taupin in particular in his blog on [[http://www.berniejtaupin.com/ his official website]].

* CoverVersion: "[[TheBeatles Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds]]"; "[[TheWho Pinball Wizard]]".

* GratuitousPanning: The chorus of the "Crocodile Rock" (the "la, la, la, la, la" parts) are panned to where the vocals are on the left channel and the synthesizers are on the right channel. The rest of the song has quite a lot of panning as well, but the chorus is the most blatant part.

** Before being signed, Elton sang on soundalike low-budget recordings of famous songs of the day marketed to Woolworth's stores, similar to the "Drew's Famous" or "Hollywood Singers" CDs one finds at department stores nowadays. Occasionally, to capitalize on Elton's later success, you'll find albums like "Chartbusters Go Pop!" or "16 Legendary Covers" featuring these recordings. Witness his covers of "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4okU1j9he2Q Spirit In The Sky]]" by Norman Greenbaum, or, erm, "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tmKSg5g8S0 Young, Gifted And Black]]" by ArethaFranklin!

* CoverVersion: "[[TheBeatles Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"; "[[TheWho Pinball Wizard]]".
** Before being signed, Elton sang on soundalike low-budget recordings of famous songs of the day marketed to Woolworth's stores, similar to the "Drew's Famous" or "Hollywood Singers" CDs one finds at department stores nowadays. Occasionally, to capitalize on Elton's later success, you'll find albums like "Chartbusters Go Pop!" or "16 Legendary Covers" featuring these recordings. Witness his covers of "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4okU1j9he2Q Spirit In The Sky]]" by Norman Greenbaum, or, erm, "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tmKSg5g8S0 Young, Gifted And Black]]" by ArethaFranklin!

* ChristmasSongs: "Step Into Christmas", along with its B-side, "Ho! Ho Ho!". "Cold As Christmas" name-checks the holiday but is not itself a Christmas song.

** Often, his outrageous costumes and goofy glasses ran on this, in a more clean-cut way, along with RuleOfFun and UpToEleven. DonaldDuck suits, EiffelTower hats, six-foot tall Mohawks, the glasses that lit up E-L-T-O-N. His 50th birthday saw hhim attend a costume party in a Louis IV costume with a giant wig, where he had to be lifted off a truck via a crane. And that was ''after'' he toned down the costumes/glasses.

** "I'm Going To Be A Teenage Idol" from ''Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player'' is a depiction of one. It was written in tribute the Elton's friend MarcBolan at the height of "[=TRexstacy=]".

** "I'm Going To Be A Teenage Idol" from ''Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player'' is a depiction of one. It was written in tribute the Elton's friend [[TRex Marc Bolan]] at the height of "[=TRexstacy=]".

** "I'm Going To Be A Teenage Idol" from ''Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player'' is a depiction of one. It was written in tribute the Elton's friend [[TRex Marc Bolan]] at the height of "[[=TRexstacy=}}".

He has had numerous comebacks in TheEighties and TheNineties, and succcessfully rehabilitated himself from drugs, alcohol and bulimia in 1991. He later helped score TheLionKing with Tim Rice in 1994 (winning an Oscar), and co-authored several Broadway musicals, including ''TheLionKing'', ''Lestat'', ''Aida'', and ''Billy Elliot''. He recieved a star on the Hollywood Hall of Fame in 1975, inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, and was [[KnightFever knighted]] in 1998. A theatrical revue of his songs, featuring Sir Elton in concert amid elaborate staging, films and props, titled "The Red Piano'', opened in Las Vegas in 2004 and closed in 2009.

* ''TheLionKing'' soundtrack (1994)

* PopStarComposer: With Tim Rice for Disney's ''TheLionKing'' and Dreamworks' ''TheRoadToElDorado''.

** "Someone's Final Song" from ''Blue Moves'' is [[TearJerker a more tragic take on suicide]].

** "Someone's Final Song" from ''Blue Moves'' is a more tragic take on suicide.

** Due to their good friendship, and because during that 1974 MSG performance, John reunited with his at-the-time estranged wife YokoOno, Elton got to be the godfather of John & Yoko's son Sean Lennon a year later.

* DrivenToSuicide: Averted in 1969, before Elton was popular. Elton was engaged to be married to a woman named Linda Woodrow, but began contemplating suicide. This led to an attempt discovered by Bernie Taupin, who was his flatmate at the time. The suicide attempt later inspired the song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight". (The "someone" in the lyrics, written by Taupin, actually refers to Long John Baldry, who talked Elton out of getting married.)

** "I Think I'm Going To Kill Myself" [[PlayedForLaughs attempts to play this trope for laughs]]. [[BlackComedy Complete with a tap-dance solo in the middle eight]]. Possibly became HarsherInHindsight in 1975, when the hit song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" made Elton's prior suicide attempt more well-known.

* DrivenToSuicide: Averted in 1969, before Elton was popular. Elton was engaged to be married to a woman named Linda Woodrow, but began contemplating suicide. This led to an attempt discovered by Bernie Taupin, who was his flatmate at the time. This later inspired the song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight". (The "someone" in the lyrics, written by Taupin, actually refers to Long John Baldry, who talked Elton out of getting married.)

** "I Think I'm Going To Kill Myself" [[PlayedForLaughs attempts to play this trope for laughs]]. [[BlackComedy Complete with a tap-dance solo in the middle eight]].