Elton John

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Elton John

Elton John

The Elton Run is a great road-trip game: Using the radio’s scan and seek buttons, see how long you can keep a continuous streak of Elton hits rolling. It’s been proven possible to follow the Elton Run up I-95 from Virginia all the way to Boston. The hazard: One sixth of your listening will be devoted to “Your Song,” Elton’s most overplayed standard even though everybody is over it at this point (Sample lyrics: “If I was a sculptor / But then again, no,” I think we can all agree we don’t need to hear that cheesy line anymore.) But Elton has a staggering number of hits; At least one in the Top 40 every year from 1970 through 1995 (!). With his electric boots and mohair suits, he’s the prima of all donnas, sitting like a princess perched in his electric chair. He entertains by picking brains. He sells his soul by dropping names. And for all his camp flamboyance, he’s aged into the most beloved entertainer on earth. Elton’s got about a million compilations, but his best one is Greatest Hits 1970-2002, the cream of his grand early-to-mid-‘70s run: “Philadelphia Freedom,” “The Bitch Is Back,” “Island Girl,” “Levon” and “Somebody Saved My Life Tonight.” For every classic Elton hit, there are some real blunders too: his covers of “Pinball Wizard” and “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” prove some legendary songs should just stay untouched. I have to mention “Rocket Man,” a clear Bowie rip-off but somehow the greatest song about husband-hood ever written. There’s the closest thing Elton ever came to being a gangsta, “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting,” a song that makes you want to put ion a leather jacket, get on a motorcycle, and go start a fight at the nearest dive bar. “Bennie And The Jets” is an occult invocation to the pagan goddesses of glam rock, complete with blood, honor, electric music, and riots. Elton always made erratic albums, but if the hits are all you know, you’d be surprised how many great songs he scattered along the way. His songwriter Bernie Taupin would write lyrics between the silly (“Bennie And The Jets”) and the serious (“Candle In The Wind,” “Rocket Man”). This pendulum swing kept people confused. The Wild West concept of Tumbleweed Connection has “Country Comfort” and “Amoreena.” Madman Across the Water has “Levon,” an excellent imitation of Cher’s consonants-only vocal style. Honky Château, Elton’s first actual rock & roll album, has some of his greatest nonhits, such as “Mellow,” “Hercules,” “Slave,” and “Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters,” a personal favorite of mine. Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player comes down to the hits: “Crocodile Rock,” which Elton revived with an all-croc band on The Muppet Show. There’s also the heartfelt “Daniel” about his brother who he lost. The double-vinyl Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is Elton’ biggest, best, catchiest, silliest, most pretentious, and most rock set, a fun house of pansexual perversion. It’s packed with hits and oddities with special praise for side three’s femme-fatale triptych of “Sweet Painted Lady,” “Dirty Little Girl,” and “All the Young Girls Love Alice.” Caribou has glitzy-bitch rockers plus the cozy love ballad “Pinky.” Rock of the Westies has “Island Girl.” A much more honest song about prostitution than “Lady Marmalade,” and the fantastic self-loathing ballad “I Feel Like A Bullet (in the Gun of Robert Ford),” one of his best songs ever. The autobiographical Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy didn’t have many good songs. Elton’s popularity took a dive around the time he came out, in the late ‘70s, and so did his music. He fought his way back with “Mama Can’t Buy You Love,” (sweet Philly soul), “Little Jeannie” (remember for the idiotic chorus “I want you to be my acrobat”), and the triumphant “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues.” He even cracked MTV with the most flamboyant video ever, “I’m Still Standing.” On the radio, Elton was rolling like thunder under the cover, but he faded as a songwriter. His ‘80s hits had occasional glimmers, such as “Kiss the Bride” and “Wrap Her Up.” Duets had a funny remake of “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” with RuPaul and Kiki Dee. Songs From the West Coast was such a great idea, you wonder why it took 25 years: Why doesn’t Elton just sit down at the piano and make an Elton John album? The result was easily the Captain's best offering since Rock of the Westies; no hits, but Elton had plenty of those already. In fact, some he’s had twice, such as “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” which became a 1991 duet with George Michael and in 1997 “Candle in the Wind” was re-written for Princess Diana’s funereal. The ‘90s were overall good for Elton, with his contributions to The Lion King soundtrack really bringing Elton to the immortal status we all knew he was the first time we saw or heard him. Other than that, there is a cool remix I like, 2012's "Good Morning to the Night."It was one of Elton's few hits in the 2010's. You can read up about the single here.  There have been the obligatory tribute albums. Elton contributed a very forgettable duet with Lady Gage ("Hello Hello") Gaga for the movie Gnomeo & Juliet. Elton cemented his status as a rock 'n' roll legend as all rock 'n' roll legends do: having a bio-pic made of his life. The movie, Rocketman, came out in 2019. It's crazy how relevant he has managed to stay. Everyone knows Elton John. Unfortunately, he is finishing up his final tour (The Farewell Yellow Brick World Tour) and is retiring from touring. It’s the Captain, he’s in control- so who’s to say he won’t come back? Either way, we’ll always have the music, and the music- I am fond.

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Elton John