Elton John

Sir Elton Hercules John CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947) is an English singer-songwriter, composer, pianist, record producer, and occasional actor. He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriter partner since 1967; they have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date.  In his five-decade career Elton John has sold more than 300 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. Elton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Having been named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1996, Elton received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for "services to music and charitable services" in 1998. Elton has performed at a number of royal events, such as the funeral of Princess Diana at Westminster Abbey in 1997, the Party at the Palace in 2002 and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert outside Buckingham Palace in 2012.  He has been heavily involved in the fight against AIDS since the late 1980's.  In 1992, he established the Elton John AIDS Foundation and a year later began hosting the annual Academy Award Party, which has since become one of the highest-profile Oscar parties in the Hollywood film industry. Since its inception, the foundation has raised over $200 million.  Elton entered into a civil partnership with David Furnish on 21 December 2005, the first day it was legally possible in England and Wales, and continues to be a champion for LGBT social movements worldwide and same-sex marriage.
==Links To Peel==
Like Peel, Elton John was a music enthusiast with a love of records. In the early 1970s, just before his career took off, Elton had a Saturday job as a sales assistant in Musicland, Berwick Street, one of the London shops where Peel obtained new, imported American LPs. In an interview on Partners In Dispute in 1992, Peel described Elton John as a nice man, who sent him letters and books. He also described early Elton John's work along with Queen as radical, although the innovations they pioneered have subsequently become common practice. John recorded two Peel sessions, the first of them broadcast on Night Ride in November 1968, despite a seemingly disastrous trial appearance on Stuart Henry's show three weeks previously: the audition panel described him as having "a thin, piercing voice with no emotional appeal". Ken Garner, The Peel Sessions, p.298. At the start of his solo career Elton John was strongly influenced by American singer-songwriters who were played on Peel's shows, such as David Ackles and Tim Buckley, so the fact that his first session went out on Night Ride rather than Top Gear seemed appropriate.
However, Elton John developed an extroverted stage act, which distinguished him from most other singer-songwriters of his era and greatly aided his rise to superstardom, especially in the U.S.. This side of Elton John came through on his 1973 second session recording, on which he played in "pub piano" style; Peel, John Walters and Teddy Warrick were heard singing along with Elton John in a drunken medley chorus of Daniel and Your Song. Walters recalled the recording of the session in an article for Radio Times ahead of the Elton John at the Beeb special programme, first broadcast on Radio 1 on 07 December 1985."We trundled out of those cobwebby jangle pianos..., bought some light ales, and for the John Peel programme festive edition, Elton rattled off superbly insensitive knees-up versions of his work, pub standards, Christmas songs and even Bob Dylan. Do the record companies archives have this? One up to the Beeb, I think."  
Although finding him personally likeable, Peel showed no interest in his later material, but after Peel's death, Elton John appeared on the documentary John Peel's Record Box in 2005 and commended Peel for the work he had done for music.
Speaking in 2019, John said of The Band: "John Peel played the Music from Big Pink on his show, and I was a religious follower of John Peel in those days. He played all the great new music, and Bernie and I freaked out when we heard it. We’d never heard anything like this before. It was Americana done in a very soulful, funky, kind of laid back way.” Far Out on-line magazine quoting John when appearing on BBC Radio 2's Tracks of My Years, 2019.
==Sessions==
*thumb|330x330pxTwo sessions, neither available commercially, despite a claim to the contrary by Strange Fruit (see below). A BBC Transcription Services LP of the 1985 Elton John at the Beeb programme presented by Andy Peebles and featuring some tracks from his Peel sessions does exist.
1. Recorded: 1968-11-27. Broadcast: 27 November 1968. No repeats.
*Lady What's Tomorrow / Vall-Hala / Digging My Grave / My First Days At Hi Eaton / The Scaffold (final 2 tracks were not broadcast during Peel's hour of Night Ride)
2. Recorded: 1973-12-18. Broadcast: 25 December 1973. Repeated: 19 December 1974, 25 March 1976 (Daniel / Your Song medley only), 25 December 1985
*Dylan Medley (Blowin' In The Wind/She Belongs To Me/Mr.Tambourine Man) / Pub Medley (Don't Dilly Dally On The Way/Lilly Of Laguna/Down At The Old Bull And Bush/Knees Up Mother Brown/Hokey Kokey) / Christmas Medley (Away In A Manger/Rudolf The Red-Nose Reindeer/White Christmas/Jingle Bells) / Medley: Daniel/Your Song)
==Live==
*Recorded: 1970-03-26. Date sourced from Ken Garner's In Session Tonight, BBC Books, 1993 (p. 260). Broadcast: 05 April 1970. 'Ballad Of A Well-Known Gun' available on Before The Fall '67 '77 - The Peel Sessions (Strange Fruit). The labelling on this release leads one to believe it comes from a Peel session.
#Take Me To The Pilot
#My Father's Gun
#Your Song
#Ballad Of A Well Known Gun
* Recorded: 1974-12-24. Broadcast: 24 December 1974
# I Need You To Turn To
# Border Song
# Take Me To The Pilot
# Country Comfort
# Holiday Inn
# High Flying Bird
# Burn Down The Mission
# Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
# Candle In The Wind
# Grimsby
# Rocket Man
# Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
# Daniel
# Grey Seal
# Bennie & The Jets
# Band Intro
# Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
# I Saw Her Standing There
# Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
# Honky Cat
# Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting
# Crocodile Rock
# The Bitch Is Back
# Your Song
# White Christmas
# Closing
==Other Shows Played==
(The following list was compiled only from the database of this site and Lorcan's Tracklistings Archive and is certainly incomplete. Please add further details if known.)
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;1969
*12 January 1969: Lady Samantha (7") Philips BF 1739
*02 February 1969: Lady Samantha (7") Philips BF 1739
;1970
*28 March 1970: Border Song (7") DJM DJS 217
*25 April 1970: Take Me To The Pilot (LP - Elton John) DJM DJLPS 2/4 0406
*16 May 1970: No Shoe Strings On Louise (LP – Elton John) DJM DJLPS 2/4 0406
*30 May 1970: The Cage (LP - Elton John) DJM DJLPS 2/4 0406
*17 October 1970: My Father's Gun (album - Tumbleweed Connection) DJM DJLPS 410
*05 December 1970: Burn Down The Mission (album - Tumbleweed Connection) DJM DJLPS 410
;1972
*04 April 1972: Rocket Man (single) DJM
*14 April 1972: Rocket Man (single) DJM
*18 April 1972: Rocket Man (single) DJM
*25 April 1972: Rocket Man (single) DJM
*16 May 1972: Honky Cat (LP - Honky Château) DJM
*23 May 1972: I Think I'm Going To Kill Myself (LP - Honky Château) DJM
;1973
*21 August 1973 (A Touch Of The Moon): I'm Going To Be A Teenage Idol
*28 August 1973 (A Touch Of The Moon): I Think I'm Going To Kill Myself
*04 September 1973 (A Touch Of The Moon): Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting
*11 September 1973 (A Touch Of The Moon): Elderberry Wine
*09 October 1973: Funeral For A Friend (Love Lies Bleeding) (album - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road) DJM DJLPD 1001
*16 October 1973: I've Seen That Movie Too (2xLP - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road) DJM
;1975
*15 May 1975: Someone Saved My Life Tonight
;1978
*PM013: Song For Guy
;1992
*Partners In Dispute: Madman Across The Water
== Top Of The Pops ==
*05 May 1983 (TOTP): Your Song (clip from 14 January 1971)
*23 June 1983 (TOTP): I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues
*04 August 1983 (TOTP): I'm Still Standing 
*06 September 1984 (TOTP): Passengers
*02 January 1986 (TOTP): Wrap Her Up
== See Also ==
*Singles Reviews
*Gigography 1970 
*Bread And Beer Band 
*Disc & Music Echo: Peel Columns‎‎
*Sounds
==External Links==
*Wikipedia
*Discogs
*Official Website
*Teenage Kicks, Halfway To Paradise
;Footnotes
Category:Artists