August 2003
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More about Sir Elton John
Born Reginald Dwight in Pinner, Middlesex, England, in 1947, he was the son of a former Royal Air Force trumpeter. He began playing piano at age four, and when he was 11, he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. After studying for six years, he left school with the intention of breaking into the music business. Eventually, his versatility, combined with effortless melodic skills, dynamic charisma and flamboyant stage shows, made him the most popular recording artist of the 1970s. He remains a remarkably popular artist and many of his songs -- including "Your Song," "Rocket Man," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," and "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" -- have become standards. He won his first Tony Award in 2000 for the Broadway musical Aida, which he wrote with lyricist Tim Rice. Earlier, the pair had written the soundtrack for the Walt Disney Pictures film The Lion King, which was later adapted into the 1996 Tony-winning best musical. Apart from musical projects, he continues to be personally involved in the fund raising activities for the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which funds direct care service for men, women and children living with HIV and AIDS. Since its inception in 1992, the foundation has distributed more than $13 million in grants worldwide. In 1997, in honor of his 50th birthday, he was awarded an Honorary Membership to the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied on a scholarship as a youngster. In 1998 the Queen of England knighted Elton John for his contributions to charity and the arts, honoring him with the title Sir Elton John CBE. He is also the recipient of the Grammy Legend Award. |
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With 32 gold and 21 platinum albums, 29 consecutive Top 40 hits, innumerable Grammy Awards, and more than 60,000,000 records sold in the United States, Elton John, in a remarkable career spanning more than 30 years, is one of the top-selling solo artists of all time.