In the 1970s, he was responsible for an astonishing 2% of all record sales around the world and in 2021 he scored his eighth UK No 1 album, with The Lockdown Sessions. When the 76-year-old Sir Elton John performs his farewell UK concert at Glastonbury this weekend, he will seal one of British pop’s most illustrious and ongoing legacies.
“His impact on music can’t be overstated,” says the Years & Years frontman, Olly Alexander, with whom John duetted at the 2021 Brit awards. “He’s constantly played, constantly covered, constantly reinterpreted and he’s still having hits.”
The singer-songwriter, born Reginald Dwight, has sold more than 300m records and scored 10 UK No 1 singles. His 32 studio albums include such classics as Honky Château (1972), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973) and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975).
John Lennon hailed him as “the first new thing since the Beatles” and John challenged the dominant guitar format to place the piano at the forefront. Kate Bush once said: “Most artists in the mid-70s played guitar but Elton played piano and I dreamed of being able to play like him.” Others influenced include Queen, George Michael and Adele.
The 70s brought outlandish costumes and superstardom before chart domination returned with 80s hits such as I’m Still Standing. In the 90s, he sang Candle in the Wind at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales: a reworked and rerecorded version reached No 1 and became the biggest-selling single in UK history.
Such an outsize stage presence and indeed life couldn’t be contained by pop songs alone: his musical theatre successes include The Lion King (1994) and Billy Elliot (2005), while he played an outsize bovver-booted Pinball Wizard in Ken Russell’s 1975 film Tommy and inspired an acclaimed biopic, 2019’s Rocketman.
After coming out as gay in 1992, he established the Elton John Aids Foundation, raising over $525m (£413m) to support HIV-related programmes in 90 countries. “It’s been incredibly helpful having someone so famous,” says the foundation’s chief executive, Anne Aslett, “but he has lived experience as a gay man living through the Aids crisis in the 80s and 90s. He lost a lot of friends and sat at a lot of bedsides. So now whenever we go to Africa or wherever he connects with people deeply.”
Lately, the singer has had hit singles duetting with younger stars including Ed Sheeran, Britney Spears and Dua Lipa. He contacted Alexander after watching him in the Channel 4 hit drama It’s a Sin, named after the Pet Shop Boys song they then sang together.
“I learned to play piano with an Elton John songbook, so speaking to him was overwhelming,” Alexander says. “I think It’s a Sin reminded him of his younger years and experience of being gay. He’s obviously a legendary artist, but to experience the human side of him was something I’m so grateful for. I never dreamed I’d perform with Elton at the Brits.”
In 2022, the superstar played and sang on 100% Endurance, a song by the Leeds-based post-punk band Yard Act. “He’d mentioned us in interviews, and after we covered Tiny Dancer he called me up,” says singer James Smith. “We slightly cheekily asked if he’d play with us and he went: ‘Absolutely.’” Smith found him to be very down to earth. “He said he was ‘here to learn’. I’m thinking, you wrote Bennie and the Jets! What can you learn from us? But he’s really interested and open-minded. I learned from him to constantly stay curious.”
Lately, the veteran singer seems to be revelling in his ability to champion rising stars. He hailed the Scottish singer Joesef, signed to the Glasgow indie label Bold Cut, as “one of the great voices”. “It was surreal and lovely because he doesn’t need to do that,” says the singer, AKA Joseph Traynor, “but he’s genuinely enthusiastic. I can’t believe he listens to my album in his house.”
The Welsh singer-songwriter the Anchoress, AKA Catherine Anne Davies, had a “pinch yourself moment” while hanging washing out, when the superstar called to say he loved her 2021 album The Art of Losing. He subsequently interviewed her on his Rocket Hour podcast and his regular support has been “priceless, really, and a watershed for my album”.
Last week, he told the BBC about new acts to see at Glastonbury. “He’s always listening to new music,” says Amy Love, of the female rock duo Nova Twins, “but finding out he’d given us a shoutout was mind-blowing. Suddenly we were FaceTiming and I’m thinking: ‘Elton John’s face is on my phone.’”
He also praised the singer-songwriter Olivia Dean as a future “big star”. “Having his stamp of approval is so validating and encouraging and has put me on cloud nine going into the weekend,” says the singer, who after her Glastonbury set will join the crowd to watch Elton’s grand farewell. Perhaps it’s his enthusiasm that has kept him at the top so long. As Aslett puts it: “He’s never lost that childlike glee.”
Elton John’s landmark moments
1947 Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in Pinner, Middlesex
1967 Meets his lifelong songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin, after both answer a New Musical Express advert seeking songwriters
1969 The first Elton John album, Empty Sky, sells 4,000 copies
1970 His US debut at the LA Troubadour is rapturously received
1970 Your Song becomes his first hit
1972 Honky Château becomes his first US No 1 album
1973 Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player reaches No 1 in the US and UK
1975 Attempts to kill himself following a cocaine binge
1976 Tells Rolling Stone he is bisexual
1984 Marries the German sound engineer Renate Blauel. They divorce four years later
1985 Performs at Live Aid
1989 Wins £1m damages from the Sun over “rent boy” allegations
1991 Duet with George Michael, Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me, becomes a transatlantic No 1
1990 After years of substance misuse he begins sobriety
1992 Comes out as gay to Rolling Stone
1997 Sings at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales
2014 Marries his longtime partner, David Furnish. The couple have two sons, Zachary and Elijah, via a surrogate
2021 The Lockdown Sessions becomes his eighth No 1 album
