Sir Elton Hercules John CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947) is an
English singer-songwriter,
composer and
pianist.
In his four-decade career, John has been one of the dominant forces in rock and popular music, especially during the 1970s. He has sold over 200 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. He has more than 50
Top 40 hits including seven consecutive No. 1 U.S. albums,
59 Top 40 singles, 16 Top 10, four No. 2 hits, and nine No. 1 hits. He has won five
Grammy awards and one
Academy Award. His success has had a profound impact on
popular music and has contributed to the continued popularity of the piano in
rock and roll. In 2004,
Rolling Stone ranked him #49 on their list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.
Some of the characteristics of John's musical talent include an ability to quickly craft melodies for the lyrics of songwriting partner
Bernie Taupin, his former rich
tenor (now
baritone) voice, his classical and
gospel-influenced piano, the aggressive
orchestral arrangements of
Paul Buckmaster among others and the on-stage showmanship, especially evident during the 1970s.
John was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He has been heavily involved in the fight against
AIDS since the late 1980s, and was
knighted in 1998. He entered into a
civil partnership with
David Furnish on 21 December 2005 and continues to be a champion for
LGBT social movements. On 9 April 2008, John held a benefit concert for
Hillary Clinton's
presidential campaign, raising $2.5 million. In 2008,
Billboard magazine released a list on which are present Hot 100's top 100 artists and Elton John reached #3, preceded by
Madonna and
The Beatles.
Early lifeJohn was born and raised in
Pinner,
Middlesex in a
council house of his maternal grandparents, with whom his newlywed parents (Sheila Eileen (Harris) and Stanley Dwight) were living. They then moved to a nearby semi-detached house. He was educated at
Pinner County Grammar School until the age of 15, before pursuing a career in the music industry.
When John began to seriously consider a career in music, his father tried to steer him toward a more conventional career such as banking. He has stated that his wild stage costumes and performances were his way of letting go after such a restrictive childhood. Both of John's parents were musically inclined, his father having been a trumpet player with a semi-professional big band that played military dances. The Dwights were avid record buyers, exposing John to all the popular singers and musicians of the day. John remembers being immediately hooked on rock and roll when his mother brought home records by
Elvis Presley and
Bill Haley & His Comets in 1956.
Musical interestDwight started playing the piano at the age of three, and within a year, his mother heard him picking out
Winifred Atwell's "The Skater's Waltz" by ear. It wasn’t long before the boy was being pressed into service as a performer at parties and family gatherings. He began taking piano lessons at the age of seven. He showed great musical aptitude at school, including the ability to compose melodies, and gained some notoriety by playing like
Jerry Lee Lewis at school functions. At the age of 11, he won a junior scholarship to the
Royal Academy of Music. One of his instructors reports that, when he entered the Academy, she played a four-page piece by
Handel, which he promptly played back like a "gramophone record."
For the next five years, John took the tube (subway) into central
London to attend Saturday classes at the Academy, in addition to his regular school duties at Pinner County Grammar School. John has since stated that he enjoyed playing
Chopin and
Bach and singing in the choir during Saturday classes, but that he was not otherwise a diligent classical student. "I kind of resented going to the Academy," he says. "I was one of those children who could just about get away without practicing and still pass, scrape through the grades." He even claims that he would sometimes skip classes and just ride around on the Tube. However, several instructors have testified that he was a "model student," and during the last few years he was taking lessons from a private tutor in addition to his classes at the Academy. Therefore, whatever his internal attitude might have been, it seems clear that he was dedicated to learning his craft.
John's mother Sheila, though also strict with her son, was more vivacious than her husband, and something of a free spirit. With Stanley Dwight uninterested in his son and often physically absent, John was raised primarily by his mother and maternal grandmother. When his father was home, the Dwights would have terrible arguments that greatly distressed their son. John was 15 when they divorced. Sheila was soon remarried to a local painter named Fred Farebrother, who turned out to be a caring and supportive stepfather. John affectionately referred to him as "Derf", his first name in reverse. They moved into flat No. 1A in an eight-unit apartment building called Frome Court, not far from both previous homes. It was there that John would write the songs that would launch his career as a rock star; he would live there until he had four albums simultaneously in the American Top 40.
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