By 1976, Elton John was the best-selling recording artist and the highest-grossing touring act in the world. With seven #1 albums in a row and a reputation as a riveting piano-pounding performer, the former Reggie Dwight had gone with dazzling speed from the London suburbs to the pinnacles of rock stardom, his songs never leaving the charts, his sold-out shows packed with adoring fans. Then he released Blue Moves, and it all came crashing down. Was the commercially disappointing and poorly reviewed double album to blame? Can one album shoot down a star? No, argues Matthew Restall; Blue Moves is a four-sided masterpiece, as fantastic as Captain Fantastic, as colorful as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, a showcase for the three elements--piano-playing troubadour, full orchestra, rock band--with which Elton John and his collaborators redirected the evolution of popular music. Instead, both album and career were derailed by a perfect storm of circumstances: Elton's decisions to stop touring and start his own label; the turbulent shiftings of popular culture in the punk era; the minefield of attitudes toward celebrity and sexuality. The closer we get to Blue Moves, the better we understand the world into which it was born--and vice versa. Might that be true of all albums?

The book Elton's fiercely loyal followers have been craving--a guide that explores every nook and cranny of the legendary rock musician's extraordinary career. Included are biographical background, anecdotes, critical commentary, lists, pop quizzes, trivia, quotes, and more. Illustrations.

This first-of-its-kind catalog of Elton John’s decades-long career tells the story of one of rock's all-time greatest artists, album-by-album and track-by-track. Organized chronologically and covering every album and song that EGOT-winner Sir Elton Hercules John has ever released, Elton John All the Songs draws upon years of research to tell the behind-the-scenes stories of how each song was written, composed, and recorded, down to the instruments used and the people who played them. Spanning more than fifty-years of work from Elton and his longtime collaborator, Bernie Taupin, this book details the creative processes that resulted in seminal albums like Goodbye Yellowbrick Road, Madman Across the Water, and Tumbleweed Connection, as well as Academy Award wins for 1995's Lion King and 2020's Rocketman. Newer work like The Lockdown Sessions, which released in 2021, is also featured alongside Billboard stats, tour dates, producing and mixing credits, and other insider details that will keep fans turning pages. Starting with the artist's early days working as a studio musician in London, and featuring interviews with actors, musicians, collaborators, and confidantes, Elton John All the Songs offers readers the most detailed portrait of the artist and his creative process that has ever been produced. Featuring hundreds of vivid photographs that celebrate one of music's most visually arresting performers, Elton John All the Songs is the authoritative guide to one of rock'n'roll's greatest stars.

We can count on one hand the musical legends equal to Elton John (the Beatles and the Rolling Stones each get a finger). Elton John: Fifty Years On looks at the impact songwriting partners Elton John and Bernie Taupin have had on popular music and culture, and also discusses every song on all thirty albums, plus his work on Broadway, in movies, and elsewhere. • Part 1 is a bullet-pointed look at every released song, complete with insights, trivia, and meanings, including musical insights—like Elton’s favorite chord progressions, or the most notable melodies in his discography. • Part 2 is a collection of essays and interviews with musicians and music writers chatting about Elton and Bernie. Did you know? · Elton and Bernie’s revision of “Candle in the Wind” (known as “Goodbye England’s Rose”), a tribute to Princess Diana after her untimely death, is the biggest-selling single in the UK and the second-biggest selling single in music history (after Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas”). · “Tiny Dancer” may or may not be about Bernie Taupin’s wife, Maxine…quotes from Elton and Bernie contradict each other. · The biggest music stars in the world routinely show up at Elton John concerts to sing duets with the Rocket Man, including Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, George Michael, Bruce Hornsby, Lionel Richie, Mary J. Blige, Bryan Adams, Demi Lovato, Shawn Mendes, and many more, as well as Elton’s legendary “dual” shows with Billy Joel · The background vocals for the song “White Lady White Powder” on the 21 at 33 album are sung by the Eagles. · The background vocals for the song “Cage the Songbird” on the Blue Moves album are sung by Graham Nash and David Crosby. (Stephen Stills must have been busy?) Elton John: Fifty Years On was written for ultimate Elton John fans. A browsing book, a reading book, a treasure trove of facts, trivia, insights, and commentary, it’s the perfect companion to Elton leaving the Yellow Brick Road.

This month, as Sir Elton John celebrates his seventieth birthday, Backbeat Books is thrilled to announce the release of Donald Gibson's Elton John FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Rocket Man. An exploration of Sir Elton's accolades alone could span several volumes: in a career spanning nearly five decades, he has sold over 250 million records worldwide, appeared in nearly 4 000 live performances, been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and received multiple awards and nominations from the Academy, GRAMMYs, Oscars, and Tonys. How can one possibly hope to examine the life and times of this peerless singer-songwriter, the most successful solo artist Great Britain has ever produced and the third-most successful artist overall in American music history? Why, with Backbeat's acclaimed FAQ format, of course! Like every other volume in the FAQ series, Elton John FAQ is overflowing with enlightening data, compact histories, rare photographs and period ephemera, all organized into chapters equally suitable for a straight-through read or random perusal. Gibson touches on every major episode from Sir Elton's life, from his humble, and at times disheartening, childhood in the North London suburb of Pinner to his serendipitous meeting with lyricist Bernie Taupin, with whom he'd form a songwriting partnership that would ultimately rank alongside Lennon and McCartney in its success, and beyond. Scrutinizing the highs and lows of a life crammed with musical phases and sartorial changes, the book underscores not only the renowned musician's talents, but the truth behind tales that are familiar only to diehard fans.

The colorful and kaleidoscopic life of one of the world’s most original and talented musical artists. Here’s the book every pop music lover has been waiting for—full of the scandals, addictions, affairs and tantrums that underscored the life of arguably the world’s greatest pop musician. Flamboyant, iconic Elton John is as much part of the American musical landscape as he is in his native England. In the 1970s, when popular music on both sides of the Atlantic fragmented into disco, soul, hard rock, pop and folk, Elton John embraced them all with his signature creative panache. Emerging in the late 1960s as a singer/songwriter, Elton was widely acknowledged as the most prolific pop and rock star of the decade by the mid-1970s. His peerless musical style and ability to jump from sensitive ballads to bawdy rock anthems to campy pop have made him a musical superstar for the ages. From his heartfelt ballads like “Tiny Dancer” and “Your Song,” to his rock & roll hits including “Benny and The Jets” and “Crocodile Rock,” Elton has lived one of the most outrageous and colorful lives in show business. Having met the “Rocket Man” the first time in the 1980s, Bego has drawn upon his personal observations, vast research, and has been able interview dozens of Elton’s collaborators and lifelong friends to produce the the ultimate story on the amazing and larger-than-life Elton John.

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