History Music / EltonJohn

* EmbarrassingFirstName: Would you buy an album by Reginald Dwight?

** He executive produced and contributed music to GnomeoAndJuliet.

* LeslieNielsenSyndrome: In a non-acting sense, yes. Elton started out with an image and music more in keeping with the "singer-songwriters of TheSeventies like JamesTaylor, JimCroce or RandyNewman. He wore regular clothes, hair and glasses, sang mid-tempo, often acoustical pieces heavy on orchestration, and released theatrical and ambitious albums like ''Tumbleweed Connection'' and ''Madman Across The Water''. His SelfTitledAlbum showed him draped in darkness with a sullen look on his face, and the most showmanship he exhibited on stage (usually as a piano-bass-drums trio with Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson) was kicking the piano stool and playing while standing up, JerryLeeLewis-style. Gradually, the glitz and camp (and a more commercial pop-rock style with electric guitars, synthesizers, brass sections, etc.) crept in, with more humor and showmanship, and Elton took to wearing crazy costumes, huge platform shoes and [[MakingASpectacleOfYourself goofy eyewear]] by 1972 or 1973. Interestingly enough, [[CriticalDissonance his reviews became less favorable]] [[ItsPopularNowItSucks as he gained more fame]]. He only really toned down the flamboyancy (relatively speaking) by the beginning of TheNineties, though traces of the glam period can still be found.

*** GoKartingWithBowser: Elton, at least by WordOfGod, seems to believe (his occasional beef with celebrities aside) in trying to mend fences rather than fuel rivalries, and often forms unlikely friendships with celebrities accused of (or guilty of) homophobia (Limbaugh, Eminem, Axl Rose, etc.) to demonstrate this. Often it does lead to backdraft from gay rights advocates.
* MoralityPet: Arguably, he's one for none other than ''{{Eminem}}''.

*** "Blues Never Fade Away" from ''The Captain And The Kid'' mourns JohnLennon, RyanWhite and one other friend of Elton and Bernie's.

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

* MoneyDearBoy: Performing at RushLimbaugh's fourth wedding for a cool 1 million dollars.

* NobodyOver50IsGay: While coming out ''long before'' he was fifty, he nonetheless makes this trope his bitch and then dances on its grave. [[HotDad Raising two kids]] [[CoolOldGuy in his sixties]] with his husband doesn't hurt either.

* GriefSong: "Empty Garden" about the death of JohnLennon (see below).
** "The Last Song" (a song concerning a gay boy and his estranged father reconciling with each other on the boy's death bed as he was dying of AIDS). Written in memory of Ryan White (whom Elton knew), Bernie faxed the lyrics to him shortly after [[{{Queen}} Freddie Mercury]]'s death. Elton said that he had cried the whole time throughout making it.
*** "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.

* HotDad: On December 25th, 2010, Elton and husband David welcomed a son named Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John.
** Elijah Joseph Daniel Furnish-John was born in 2013.

* WordSaladLyrics: "Levon"; "Solar Prestige A Gammon".

** Bernie Taupin at the time of the latter album's release release noted that ''Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy'' was a very "up" album about failure, while ''The Captain And The Kid'' was a low-key album about success.

* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: The B-Side to the title track to ''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'' was a song called "Screw You", retitled "Young Man's Blues" in America to avoid offense.

** He also covered [[FleetwoodMac Fleetwood Mac's]] "Don't Stop" for a tribute album in TheNineties.

* He also covered [[FleetwoodMac Fleetwood Mac's]] "Don't Stop" for a tribute album in TheNineties.

*** ......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.

* ''Gnomeo and Juliet'' (2011)

* ''11-17-70'' (live) (1971)
* ''Friends'' soundtrack (1971)

* ''Here and There'' (live) (1976)

* ''Live in Australia (with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra)'' (1987)

* ''To Be Continued'' (boxed set) (1990)

* ''Disney/TheLionKing'' soundtrack (1994)

* ''{{Aida}}'' soundtrack (1999)
* ''TheRoadToElDorado'' soundtrack (2000)
* ''One Night Only'' (live) (2000)

* ''Elton John's Christmas Party'' (2005)

* ''Gnomeo and Juliet'' soundtrack (2011)

* ''Too Low for Zero'' (1983)

* ChristmasSongs: "Step Into Christmas", along with its B-side, "Ho! Ho Ho!". "Cold As Christmas (In The Middle Of The Year)" name-checks the holiday [[AvertedTrope but is not itself a Christmas song]].

* BalladOfX: "Ballad of a Well-Known Gun"

Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on March 25, 1947 in Pinner, England, classically-trained Elton began his career in various blues bands and as a session musician, before answering a newspaper ad by Liberty Records for aspiring songwriters. He was given his first set of lyrics by Bernie Taupin, a struggling lyricist, to set them to music. Taupin liked what he heard, and the two formed a platonic and professional bond. Changing his name by deed poll to "Elton Hercules John" in 1970 (''Elton'' for saxophonist Elton Dean, ''John'' for a singer Reg's old band Bluesology backed up, Long John Baldry, and ''Hercules'', well [[NonIndicativeName from a racehorse in BritCom "Steptoe And Son"]]), Elton with Bernie's lyrics in tow) would gain a reputation as a singer-songwriter-pianist par excellence. By 1972, he had begun to wear [[ImpossiblyCoolClothes increasingly flamboyant]] costumes, clothes and [[MakingASpectacleOfYourself eyeglasses]], which became a trademark for him until the mid-[[TheEighties 1980s]]. He became an unexpected superstar, with a string of highly successful albums such as ''Tumbleweed Connection'', ''Madman Across The Water'', ''Honky Chateau'', ''Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player'', ''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'' (a double), and ''Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy''. His success tapered by the late-[[TheSeventies 1970s]], especially after [[AmbiguouslyGay outing himself]] in 1976. In the meantime, he appeared in the film ''Born To Boogie'' as himself, and in ''Tommy'' singing "Pinball Wizard".

* BreakupSong: Plenty to choose from. "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me", "Cold As Christmas (In The Middle Of The Year)", "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word", "High Flying Bird", "I Feel Like A Bullet (In The Gun Of Robert Ford)", "I'm Still Standing" (a more vitriolic variety), "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" (ditto).

* ''Madman Across The Water'' (1971)

* ''Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player'' (1973)

* ''Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy'' (1975)
* ''Rock Of The Westies'' (1975)
* ''Here And There'' (live) (1976)

* ''Victim Of Love'' (1979)
* ''21 At 33'' (1980)

* ''Too Low For Zero'' (1983)

* ''Ice On Fire'' (1985)

* ''Live In Australia (with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra)'' (1987)

* ''Sleeping With The Past'' (1989)

* ''Made In England'' (1995)

* ''Songs From The West Coast'' (2001)

* ''The Captain And The Kid'' (2006)

* BalladOfX: "Ballad of a Well Known Gun"