Line #134 Music/EltonJohn


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4	[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/EltonJohn_8859.jpg]]
5	[[caption-width-right:330:He remembers when rock was young.]]
6
7	->''Captain Fantastic, raised and regimented\
8	Hardly a hero\
9	Just someone his mother might know.''
10	-->-- "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy"
11
12	Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947, in Pinner, UsefulNotes/{{England}}, classically-trained Sir Elton John began his career in various {{blues}} bands and as a session musician, before answering a newspaper ad by Creator/LibertyRecords 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 [[HeterosexualLifePartners platonic and professional bond]] -- they have been a songwriting team (Taupin lyrics, John music) for most of John's career.
13
14	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, Creator/LongJohnBaldry, and ''Hercules'', well from a racehorse in BritCom ''Series/SteptoeAndSon''), 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 increasingly flamboyant costumes, clothes, and 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'', ''Music/GoodbyeYellowBrickRoad'' (a double), and ''Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy''. His success tapered by the late-[[TheSeventies 1970s]], especially after outing himself in 1976. In the meantime, he appeared in the film ''Born to Boogie'' as himself, and in ''Music/{{Tommy}}'' singing "Pinball Wizard".
15
16	He has had numerous comebacks in TheEighties and TheNineties, and successfully rehabilitated himself from drugs, alcohol, and bulimia in 1991. He later helped score ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' with Tim Rice in 1994 (winning an Oscar), and co-authored several Broadway musicals, including ''The Lion King'', ''Lestat'', ''Aida'', and ''Billy Elliot''. He received a star on the Hollywood Hall of Fame in 1975, inducted into the UsefulNotes/RockAndRollHallOfFame in 1994, and was UsefulNotes/{{knight\|Fever}}ed 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.
17
18	He has performed at Live Aid, Live 8, the Freddie Mercury Concert for Life and the Concert For Diana. He has also performed at the funeral for Princess Diana in 1997, singing a revised rendition of his 1973 hit "Candle in the Wind". "Candle in the Wind 1997", produced by Beatles producer Sir George Martin, became the most successful single of all time at 37 million copies, all royalties donated to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.
19
20	Elton is a former chairman (and the current Life President) of [[UsefulNotes/BritishFootyTeams Watford Football Club]], which he supported as a child; he took over the club in 1976 when they were in the fourth division, and went onto oversee the most successful period in the club's history (rising to the first division, qualifying for the UEFA Cup and reaching the [[UsefulNotes/TheFACup FA Cup]] final). He's also the founding chairman of the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF), which he founded in 1992 after the death of Ryan White, a hemophiliac teenager from Indiana who developed AIDS after being infected with HIV from a contaminated clotting factor treatment. He befriended White after misinformed parents and teachers in his community protested against the boy's return to school.
21
22	He is well-known for his deft sense of humor, massive spending sprees, and very public tantrums. He is also well-known for wearing odd costumes and crazy glasses, especially in TheSeventies. His fortune is estimated at £175 Million, making him one of the most successful musicians of all time. Elton is also well known for having a wide-ranging musical taste, and he has championed new and breaking artists throughout his career. Since 2015, he has hosted ''Elton John's Rocket Hour'' on Apple Music's Beats One station, where he regularly plays and interviews his favorite new artists.
23
24	Good friends with fellow piano man Music/BillyJoel, with whom he has toured sporadically since the 1990s.
25
26	His life and career are fictionalized in the biopic film ''Film/{{Rocketman\|2019}}'', which he helped produce and fully supported. Creator/TaronEgerton portrays him in it.
27
28	Through various corporate transactions, the singer's entire recorded music catalogue is currently distributed by Creator/UniversalMusicGroup, who shares ownership of said catalogue with the singer himself.
29
30	Elton saw new fame in TheNewTwenties following team-ups with Music/DuaLipa ("Cold Heart", which reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100) and Music/BritneySpears ("Hold Me Closer", which reached #6).
31
32	As of 2024, he has achieved [[MediaNotes/TheEGOTs an EGOT]], having won five Grammys, an Oscar for "Can You Feel the Love Tonight", a Tony for the score to ''[[Theatre/AidaJohnRice Aida]]'' and an Emmy for his ''Farewell From Dodger Stadium'' television special.
33
34	----
35	!!Albums
36
37	Studio albums
38	[[index]]
39	* ''Empty Sky'' (1969)
40	* ''Elton John'' (1970)
41	* ''Tumbleweed Connection'' (1970)
42	* ''Madman Across the Water'' (1971)
43	* ''Music/HonkyChateau'' (1972)
44	* ''Music/DontShootMeImOnlyThePianoPlayer'' (1973)
45	* ''Music/GoodbyeYellowBrickRoad'' (1973)
46	* ''Music/{{Caribou}}'' (1974)
47	* ''Music/CaptainFantasticAndTheBrownDirtCowboy'' (1975)
48	* ''Rock of the Westies'' (1975)
49	* ''Blue Moves'' (1976)
50	* ''A Single Man'' (1978)
51	* ''Victim of Love'' (1979)
52	* ''21 at 33'' (1980)
53	* ''The Fox'' (1981)
54	* ''Jump Up!'' (1982)
55	* ''Music/TooLowForZero'' (1983)
56	* ''Breaking Hearts'' (1984)
57	* ''Music/IceOnFire'' (1985)
58	* ''Leather Jackets'' (1986)
59	* ''Music/RegStrikesBack'' (1988)
60	* ''Music/SleepingWithThePast'' (1989)
61	* ''Music/{{The One\|Album}}'' (1992)
62	* ''Duets'' (1993)
63	* ''Music/MadeInEngland'' (1995)
64	* ''Music/TheBigPicture'' (1997)
65	* ''Songs from the West Coast'' (2001)
66	* ''Peachtree Road'' (2004)
67	* ''The Captain and the Kid'' (2006)
68	* ''The Union'' (with Leon Russell) (2010)
69	* ''The Diving Board'' (2013)
70	* ''Wonderful Crazy Night'' (2016)
71	* ''Regimental Sgt. Zippo'' (recorded 1967–1968; released 2021)[[note]]This album was meant to be his debut studio album, but it was shelved in favour of ''Empty Sky''; it was given a limited vinyl-only release of 7,000 copies in 2021 for Record Store Day followed by a wide release in July 2022.[[/note]]
72	* ''The Lockdown Sessions'' (2021) [[/index]][[note]] This album is made up of a series of collaborations recorded during a break of his farewell tour caused by [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic something a bit familiar by now]], with some of the artists on the album including Music/StevieWonder, Music/LilNasX, and Music/DuaLipa.[[/note]]
73
74	Soundtracks
75	* ''Friends'' (1971)
76	* ''[[Music/TheLionKing1994 The Lion King]]'' (1994) with Creator/TimRice, Music/HansZimmer, and Lebo M.
77	* ''Theatre/{{Aida\|JohnRice}}'' (1999)
78	* ''The Muse'' (1999)
79	* ''WesternAnimation/TheRoadToElDorado'' (2000)
80	* ''Theatre/BillyElliot The Musical'' (2005)
81	* ''WesternAnimation/GnomeoAndJuliet'' (2011)
82	* ''The Lion King'' (2019) – soundtrack to the remake of the 1994 film; with Tim Rice, Hans Zimmer, and others
83	* ''Theatre/TammyFaye'' (2023)
84
85	Live albums
86	* ''17-11-70'' (1971) – titled ''11-17-70'' in the US. The album was recorded on the date of its title. Most of the world renders calendar dates day-first, but the US, and to a lesser extent Canada, use month-first format.
87	* ''Here and There'' (1976)
88	* ''Music/LiveInAustraliaWithTheMelbourneSymphonyOrchestra'' (1987)
89	* ''One Night Only'' (2000)
90	* ''Live from Moscow 1979'' (recorded in 1979, released in 2020) with percussionist Ray Cooper
91
92	Extended plays
93	* ''I've Been Loving You'' (1968)
94	* ''The Thom Bell Sessions'' (1979)
95	* ''The Complete Thom Bell Sessions'' (1989)
96	* ''Remixed'' (2003)
97
98	----
99	!!Rocket Tropes:
100
101	* AdamWesting: Caricatures himself with glee in ''Film/KingsmanTheGoldenCircle''.
102	* AlbumClosure: The final song on the album ''Madman Across the Water'' is entitled "Goodbye." It's a slow, quiet, and doleful selection that mourns the loss of a love relationship from the standpoint of the person rejected. Many of the songs on this release deal with personal interactions involving other people ("Tiny Dancer," "Razor Face") or society ("Indian Sunset," "Rotten Peaches"), and this break-up song provides closure to the collection.
103	* AlbumTitleDrop: Not including album titles that become {{Title Track}}s, ''Ice on Fire'' comes from a line in "Nikita", and ''The Union'' comes from a line in "Gone to Shiloh".
104	* 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 '70s]], Elton himself by 1990.
105	* ArtistAndTheBand: He did a fictional example with "Bennie and the Jets" from his ''Music/GoodbyeYellowBrickRoad'' album.
106	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: "Indian Sunset". The Iroquois had no dealings with the Sioux, and lived in longhouses, as opposed to tipis. The word "Squaw" was not used as a term for women among them. Geronimo died in the hospital as a prisoner, and was not killed while surrendering.
107	* BadassBoast: "The Bitch Is Back", along with SelfDeprecation.
108	* BalladOfX: "Ballad of a Well-Known Gun", "The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-34)", "Ballad of the Boy in the Red Shoes", "The Ballad of Blind Tom"
109	* BecomingTheMask: As a child, he had good eyesight, but started wearing glasses in homage to his childhood hero Music/BuddyHolly. After more than 40 years, his eyesight has deteriorated to the point that he really needs those glasses.
110	* BeyondTheImpossible: With "Simple Life" in 1993, Elton John achieved 24 consecutive years with a Top-40 hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, breaking a record held by Music/ElvisPresley. He would extend it another six years, ending it at 30 in 1999 with "Written in the Stars". The streak finally ended when his only single of 2000, "Someday Out of the Blue", peaked at number 49.
111	* 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), "Sacrifice", "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" (more of a rebound song).
112	* BuryYourGays: "All the Girls Love Alice", the ballad of a teenage lesbian prostitute who tragically dies young.
113	* CallToAgriculture: "You can't plant me in your penthouse/I'm going back to my plough."
114	* CampFollower: "Sweet Painted Lady"
115	* CanonDiscontinuity: ''Leather Jackets'' he's dubbed the worst album he made. Perhaps also ''Victim of Love'', the only album he never played any songs live from.
116	* ChristmasSongs: "Step into Christmas", along with its B-side, "Ho! Ho Ho!" — originally released in 1973, something of a bumper year for Christmas songs by British artists [[note]] see also "Merry Xmas Everybody" by Music/{{Slade}} and "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day by [[Music/RoyWood Wizzard]] [[/note]]. It's been a perennial of seasonal playlists ever since.
117	** In 2021, Elton duetted with Music/EdSheeran on the latter's "Merry Christmas", in addition to featuring (with Sheeran) on the [=LadBaby=] parody "Sausage Rolls For Everyone", leading to the unusual situation of the top two songs in the British singles charts at Christmas in 2021 being two versions of the same song, with vocals by the same artists!
118	** "Cold as Christmas (in the Middle of the Year)" name-checks the holiday [[AvertedTrope but is not itself a Christmas song]].
119	* ChronologicalAlbumTitle: ''21 at 33'', his 21st album, with Elton being 33 years old at the time. The "21" figure includes live albums and compilations in addition to studio albums.[[note]]The count includes his 14 studio albums to that point, the ''Friends'' soundtrack, ''Greatest Hits'' volumes 1 and 2, the live albums ''17-11-70'' and ''Here and There'', the EP ''The Thom Bell Sessions'', and the rarities collection ''Lady Samantha''.[[/note]]
120	* ConceptAlbum:
121	** ''Tumbleweed Connection'' is Taupin's tribute to TheWildWest. Notably, neither he nor Elton had visited America at the time the album was written.
122	** ''Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy'' is about Elton and Taupin's early years in the music business together. ''The Captain & the Kid'' picks up the story years later.
123	** ''Sleeping with the Past'' is Elton and Bernie's tribute to the great soul artists of the 1960s and 1970s.
124	* CoolShades: Has plenty of different frames that he likes to wear.
125	* CountryMouse: "Honky Cat". Bernie Taupin himself was one, which is reflected in many of his lyrics, as he faced a lot of opposition from his family to try to make it big in the city as a songwriter.
126	** "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" counts as well.
127	-->I should've stayed on the farm, should've listened to my old man
128	* CoverVersion: "[[Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds]]"; "[[Music/{{Tommy}} Pinball Wizard]]".
129	** 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 "Countdown Singers" albums 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 "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4okU1j9he2Q Spirit in the Sky]]" by Norman Greenbaum, or, erm, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tmKSg5g8S0 Young, Gifted and Black]]" by Music/ArethaFranklin!
130	** He also covered Music/FleetwoodMac's "Don't Stop" for a ''Music/{{Rumours}}'' tribute album in [[TheNineties 1998]].
131	* CoversAlwaysLie: He often points out how moody and sullen he looks on the cover of his [[http://www.allmusic.com/album/elton-john-mw0000190513 1970 self-titled album]], shrouded in darkness with normal-looking glasses, but that even in his earliest performances, he was already displaying strong showmanship and a surprising rock energy for the leader of a piano-bass-drums trio, which the media was surprised at, given his being marketed as a "sensitive singer-songwriter".
132	* DigitalPiracyIsEvil: Surprisingly subverted when he said, "I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span." He wasn't necessarily referring to online piracy, but more that he felt that the Internet was making people [[LuddWasRight emotionally detached and over-reliant on technology]] and that it allowed {{Dreadful Musician}}s to flood the market with poorly produced material.
133	* DrivenToSuicide:
134	** "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]].
135	** "Someone's Final Song" from ''Blue Moves'' is a more tragic take on suicide.
136	** As is "Indian Sunset".
137	** Elton made two notable attempts at suicide -- one after heiress girlfriend Linda Woodrow falsely told him she was pregnant and that he was the father, then suggested he choose between her or his music -- as documented in "Someone Saved My Life Tonight"[[note]]Bernie Taupin refers to this, with some dark humor, as Elton's "Woody Allen attempt" due to Elton leaving the gas in the kitchen, but unintentionally leaving the windows open[[/note]] and once in Los Angeles in 1975 intentionally in front of his visiting mother and grandmother, who were joining him for the unveiling of his star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame and concert at Dodger Stadium, by downing fifty Valium and attempting to drown himself in the hotel pool.[[note]]Elton recalls that at the sight of this, and thinking Elton was acting a bit melodramatic, his knowing grandmother deadpanned, "Well, I guess we'd better get going, then."[[/note]]
138	* DyingCandle: The aptly titled "Candle in the Wind" has a symbolic chorus for a song about "the idea of fame or youth or somebody being cut short in the prime of their life":
139	-->''And it seems to me you lived your life''\
140	''Like a candle in the wind,''\
141	''Never knowing who to cling to''\
142	''When the rain set in.''\
143	''And I would have liked to have known you,''\
144	''But I was just a kid.''\
145	''Your candle burned out long before''\
146	''Your legend ever did.''
147	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The entirety of his debut ''Empty Sky'', a harpsichord-driven album with hardly any piano and more in common with psychedelic pop than the piano-driven soft rock style he'd adopt afterward. The one song to survive in setlists has been "Skyline Pigeon", but even that was re-recorded in a more typical style in 1973.
148	** Doubly so for ''Regimental Sgt. Zippo'', which is probably why it went unreleased for decades.
149	* EpicInstrumentalOpener: "Funeral for a Friend" is the most obvious example. Several songs from ''Blue Moves'' have these as well; "Tonight" goes on for three minutes before Elton starts singing.
150	* EpicRocking: His most notable examples include "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding", "Carla/Etude/Fanfare/Chloe", "Tonight", "Gulliver/Hay Chewed/Reprise". However, he tends to have at least one song on most of his albums that passes the six-minute mark. For example, ''Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy'' has the 6:42 "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" and 6:18 "Curtains". He insisted on the former being the only single from the album and refused to let it be edited in length. It became a huge hit despite its lengthy running time.
151	** "Levon" is an interesting case. While a fair length, the original song is only 5 minutes long, not quite "epic". But in concerts? It's almost like Elton and the band forget the song they're playing and insert lengthy guitar and piano solos before coming back for the final chorus, making it run sometimes up to ''12 minutes''; nearly double the album length. Even without a big backing band, his duet concerts with Ray Cooper have often seen the pair go crazy on this number.
152	** "Madman Across the Water" is another interesting case. The first release of the song was a tidy six minute title track dominated by composed orchestral passages. However, Elton and his band recorded a nine minute version during the prior sessions for ''Tumbleweed Connection'' that featured a pair of devastating guitar solos by Mick Ronson, which was more in line with the live versions at the time (Elton otherwise being the soloist when the trio band performed it). In the years afterward, the song could be played either closer to its studio length or as an extended jam for the band.
153	* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: [[invoked]]He and Bernie Taupin mocked this idea in the ''Caribou'' cut, "Solar Prestige a Gammon". Naturally, [[SpringtimeForHitler that song was also over-analyzed]], a la "[[Music/MagicalMysteryTour I Am the Walrus]]".
154	* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: In 1992, he got a hair implant as he switched from CampGay to StraightGay. The orange hair dye is emblematic of his switch from "reflective singer-songwriter Elton" to the glam period of 1972–76.
155	* FakeBand: The premise of "Bennie and the Jets" is that it was a tribute from a fan to the band of the same name, the lyrics a commentary of the music industry's [[CorruptCorporateExecutive behavior]] in TheSeventies.
156	* ForDoomTheBellTolls: "Funeral for a Friend"
157	* FreudianExcuse: The titular protagonist of "All the Girls Love Alice" has her teenage rebellion attributed to "a simple case of Mummy Doesn't Love Me Blues."
158	* GenreRoulette: A typical Elton album, especially in TheSeventies, could go from pop to soul to country to rock to funk to torch songs to ballads to Broadway-style tunes to EpicRocking.
159	%% elaborate or add a link because this makes no sense.
160	* GiftOfSong: "Your Song" describes how the singer wrote the song to confess their love, and that the song is a humble "gift" to the recipient.
161	* GodIsDead: The ''New York Times'' said so.
162	* 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 Farfisa organ melody is 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.
163	* GreatestHitsAlbum: He's naturally had several; the first, released in 1974, is his best-selling album to date at 32 million copies and counting.
164	* GriefSong: "Empty Garden" about the death of Music/JohnLennon (see below).
165	** "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 Music/FreddieMercury's death. Elton said that he had cried the whole time throughout making it.
166	** "Candle in the Wind". Considering it was written about the death of one of the iconic women of the 20th century (Creator/MarilynMonroe) and repurposed for another ([[UsefulNotes/DianaPrincessOfWales Lady Diana Spencer]]) it's arguably the most famous of his grief songs.
167	** "Blues Never Fade Away" from ''The Captain & the Kid'' mourns John Lennon, RyanWhite and one other friend of Elton and Bernie's.
168	** "Song For Guy", Elton's tribute to a young courier (died in a motorbike accident) at his record company, who Elton now admits that he had a bit of a crush on - but may have been IncompatibleOrientation and more of a nascent close friendship.
169	* IncompatibleOrientation: "Elton's Song", well ahead of his own coming out and indeed the song's time overall.
170	* 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 [[CensoredTitle to avoid offense]].
171	* LastNoteNightmare: In "Gulliver/Hay Chewed/Reprise", the "Gulliver" section ends with wordless vocals that grow louder and more heavily reverberated before [[SmashCut jumping straight into]] the "Hay Chewed" section. It could also double as one for the entire ''Empty Sky'' album, since it was used as the representative snippet for "Gulliver" during the RepriseMedley that ends the album.
172	* LetsDuet: Elton has done ''many'' duets over his career:
173	** His first number 1 single in the UK was "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" with Kiki Dee in 1976. At that point, he had already scored ''five'' chart-toppers in the U.S.
174	** His live duet of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" with George Michael in 1991 far outperformed its original release, hitting #1 in the U.S., UK, and many other markets.
175	** A lesser-known duet with Eric Clapton, "Runaway Train" (no relation to the later Music/SoulAsylum song), was used in ''Lethal Weapon 3''.
176	* LicensedPinballTable: ''Pinball/CaptainFantasticAndTheBrownDirtCowboy'', a tie-in to both the album and to the movie ''Music/{{Tommy}}''.
177	* LocationSong: His song "Belfast" is a ProtestSong against [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles the conflict in Northern Ireland.]]
178	* LyricalDissonance:
179	** "I Think I'm Going to Kill Myself", "Since God Invented Girls", "Angeline".
180	** Bernie Taupin at the time of the latter album's release noted that ''Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy'' was a musically "up" album about failure, while ''The Captain & the Kid'' was a low-key album about success.
181	** Played with by "Sad Songs (Say So Much)", the lyrics of which aren't particularly sad or depressing in and of themselves. However, it's nevertheless a cheerful, upbeat and poppy number about how important, satisfying and necessary it can be to just listen to a good sad song when you're feeling down.
182	* MarketBasedTitle[=/=]UsefulNotes/SeparatedByACommonLanguage: His first live album was recorded from a November 1970 radio broadcast. It was sold with the title ''17-11-70'' in most of the world, but ''11-17-70'' in the US, where dates are invariably rendered in month-first format. %% Since this is a real-life example of SbaCL, it would belong in the Useful Notes namespace instead of the main one.
183	* {{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''.
184	* MerryInMinorKey: The chorus of "I'm Still Standing" is in a minor key, but it's actually more hopeful sounding than the verses, which are ironically in major key.
185	* MurderBallad: "Ticking", the last song on ''Caribou'', is one of the first rock songs about a mass shooting.
186	* NeglectedGarden: "Empty Garden", his tribute to Music/JohnLennon, likens Lennon's murder to this trope.
187	-->''Who lived here?\
188	He must have been a gardener that cared a lot,\
189	Who weeded out the tears and grew a good crop,\
190	And now it all looks strange.\
191	It's funny how one insect can damage so much grain.''
192	* NewSoundAlbum:
193	** ''Honky Chateau'' saw Elton abandon much of the dramatic singer-songwriter style of his previous albums for one with a more rock-based style and sound, de-emphasising the orchestral backdrops using his live backing band on all of the tracks for the first time rather than use session musicians.
194	** ''Rock of the Westies'' found Elton using a harder group sound with strong R&B, funk, disco and BluesRock influences, retaining only guitarist Davey Johnstone and percussionist Ray Cooper from the classic band and expanding to a seven-piece group.
195	** ''A Single Man'' used stronger SoftRock influences, with Bernie Taupin entirely replaced as full-time lyricist by Gary Osbourne.
196	** ''Victim of Love'' saw Elton dabble full-time into disco music at the end of disco's popularity; Elton only provided lead vocals while Pete Bellotte wrote or co-wrote all of the songs (aside from a discofied cover of [[Music/ChuckBerry Chuck Berry's]] "Johnny B. Goode".
197	** ''Too Low for Zero'' saw Bernie's full-time return (along with Elton's classic band from TheSeventies), but used [[TheEighties 1980's]] pop production values and more synthesizers.
198	** The synthesizers/1980's production saw heavier use on ''IceOnFire'', which also saw most of Elton's classic band laid off (again) in favor of a new band. Strong '80's funk/soul influences also appeared.
199	** ''Reg Strikes Back'' saw a new sound for Elton ''himself'', as throat surgery in 1987 rendered him unable to sing at his trademark falsetto.
200	** ''Made in England'', while AOR/MOR in places, showed Elton return more to his 1970's style, with more dramatic orchestral parts (care of Paul Buckmaster, who arranged the orchestral parts of his early-1970's albums).
201	** ''The Big Picture'' showed full AOR/MOR influence with heavily synthesized arrangements.
202	** ''Songs from the West Coast'' saw Elton used a more stripped-down sound even more retro than on ''Made in England'', entirely recorded on analog tape and returning Elton to his singer-songwriter roots.
203	** ''The Diving Board'' was the most pared-down album in years, with an emphasis on piano, bass and drums (with minimal additions) and more of an intimate feel.
204	* NoTitle: "This Song Has No Title" is – paradoxically enough – an aversion.
205	* TheOner: The videos for "This Train Don't Stop Here Anymore"[[note]]Although not a ''complete'' one: it's more like three separate Oners.[[/note]] and "I Want Love".
206	* OneManSong: ''Song for Guy'', ''Nikita''.
207	* PopStarComposer: With Tim Rice for Disney's ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' and Dreamworks' ''WesternAnimation/TheRoadToElDorado.'' Also provided music for ''WesternAnimation/GnomeoAndJuliet,'' the film of which he co-executive produced.
208	* PrecisionFStrike: "The Bitch Is Back", "The bitch is in her smile" from "Bad Blood" which he did (usually uncredited) with Music/NeilSedaka.
209	* ProtestSong: Some of his songs have subtle elements of this. "Daniel" is a UsefulNotes/VietnamWar vet (although it's subtle; a cut verse would have made this clearer), while "Ticking", an account of a gun massacre that killed 14 people, is a protest of [[UsefulNotes/AmericanGunPolitics American gun culture]]. Furthermore, as mentioned above, "Belfast" is a protest against UsefulNotes/TheTroubles in Northern Ireland.
210	* RagsToRiches: "Levon", to the extent that anyone can make sense of the lyrics, is apparently one of these stories; Levon's father, Alvin Tostig, is a poor man with high expectations for his son, Levon himself has apparently made a fortune selling party supplies (especially cartoon balloons), and his son Jesus has ambitions far beyond the party store that Levon can't quite accept.
211	* RefugeInAudacity:
212	** "The Bitch Is Back". Often, his outrageous costumes and goofy glasses ran on this, in a more clean-cut way, along with RuleOfFun and up to eleven. WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck suits, EiffelTower hats, six-foot tall Mohawks, the glasses that lit up E-L-T-O-N. His 50th birthday saw him attend a costume party in a Louis XIV 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.
213	** "I Think I'm Going to Kill Myself". Not too many artists play suicide for laughs.
214	* ReligionRantSong: "If There's a God in Heaven (What's He Waiting For?)".
215	* RepriseMedley: His ''Empty Sky'' album ends with a medley consisting of brief snippets of all the songs on the album in the order which they appeared.
216	* RockstarSong: "Bennie and the Jets", "I'm Gonna Be a Teenage Idol" and some others, including the entire ''Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy'' and ''The Captain & the Kid'' albums.
217	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road".
218	* SelfTitledAlbum: His second album, and his {{Breakthrough\|Hit}}.
219	* SesameStreetCred: He once played "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" with [[Series/TheMuppetShow The Electric Mayhem]] and sang "Don't go Breaking my Heart" with [[Series/TheMuppetShow Miss Piggy]]. He also appeared on a ''TotallyMinnie'' video and he executive produced and contributed music to ''WesternAnimation/GnomeoAndJuliet.''
220	* ShoutOut:
221	** "Levon" was named in tribute to Levon Helm of Music/TheBand.
222	** His 1973 album, ''Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player'' was reportedly named after a joking response Elton made to his friend Creator/GrouchoMarx when the comedian teased him that it would make more sense for the singer to call himself John Elton. The album cover takes it further, showing a couple buying tickets outside a marquee to a nighttime movie, with a poster of ''[[Creator/TheMarxBrothers Go West]]'' on display to the right.
223	** "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" is this to ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', with the narrator not only wishing he's stayed on the farm, but expressing a desire to go back there.
224	** One of the songs on his collaboration album ''The Union'' with Leon Russell included a song called ''Music/JimmieRodgers' Dream'' which is named after the influential country singer.
225	* SignificantBirthDate: 'Levon'. 'He was born to a pauper to a pawn on a Christmas day...'
226	* StylisticSuck: The audience in "Bennie and the Jets" is clapping behind the beat.
227	* ThisIsASong: "This Song Has No Title", "Your Song". "Step Into Christmas" opens with the line "Welcome to my Christmas song."
228	* ThisIsYourSong: TropeNamer.
229	* TitleDrop: It happens a few times that the title of an album shows up in one of its songs. A perfect example would be "Nikita" from the album ''Ice on Fire'', where the eponymous crush is described as having "eyes that look like ice on fire".
230	* UsefulNotes/TheTroubles: "Belfast".
231	* TwoFirstNames: His stage name, Elton John, provide examples.
232	* UnlimitedWardrobe: Crazy hats, eyeglasses, sunglasses, platform shoes, outfits, costumes and other articles of clothing in TheSeventies. He (slightly) toned them down by 1988, though the loud suits and CoolShades he currently wears might also count.
233	* UnreliableNarrator: "Bennie and the Jets" is narrated by a huge fan of the titular band, who gushes about how cool they look and what a great show they put on, but never mentions anything about the songs themselves, with the implication that they're a crappy style-over-substance band as was becoming more and more common in the early '70s.
234	* VocalEvolution: His voice began with a more youthful and bright tone at the start of his career and naturally matured over the course of his career until the mid-1980s until his throat surgery in 1987 changed his voice from a tenor to a baritone, and it's only deepened since. He has rarely used his trademark falsetto range since the voice change, with the extent of his ability to even do so any longer shrouded in mystery.
235	* VocalRangeExceeded: By Elton's 1986 "Tour De Force" concert tour promoting ''Leather Jackets'', one in which Elton and his band would be accompanied for part of the set list by a symphony orchestra, Elton would suffer increasing vocal problems due to frequent marijuana and alcohol abuse, bulimic binging and purging and drug-fueled vocal oversinging and misuse, culminating in the recording of the concert film and live album ''Live in Australia'', where he very clearly is struggling throughout the concert from vocal strain and laryngitis. Doctors would soon discover non-cancerous, though career-threatening, nodules in his throat. Surgery done in 1987 would prove successful, but would vocally put Elton out of commission for several months. When he returned by late 1987 at a Prince's Trust concert special, his tenor vocal range [[VocalEvolution would be lowered to a baritone]].
236	* WarWasBeginning: Also according to ''The New York Times''. It's unclear if Levon Tostiger got his war wound in the aforementioned war.
237	* WordSaladLyrics: "Levon", "Take Me to the Pilot", "Solar Prestige a Gammon". The latter was a deliberate attempt to invoke TheWalrusWasPaul, and like many other examples of the trope, got heavily (over-)analysed anyway.

Context Music / EltonJohn