Elton John 'Peachtree Road' album

Does Elton John really need an introduction? A legend in his lifetime, a great humanitarian, a multiple Grammy winner, a flamboyant superstar and a hero of our times, Elton is the most enduringly successful singer/songwriter of his generation.

He has sustained an inimitable career over 34 years, scoring at least one Top 40 American hit a year between 1972 and 1996. His path has been entirely his own, operating outside the fickle swings and roundabouts of fashion but always, somehow, managing to connect with everyone.

Peachtree Road is, almost astonishingly, his 43rd album, yet the quality, enthusiasm and passion that he, his lyrical partner Bernie Taupin and his newly invigorated band bring to the project are as fresh and untainted as if it were their debut. Building on the back-to-basics blueprint of 2002’s multi-platinum selling Songs From The West Coast, Peachtree Road is Elton devoid of studio trickery or embellishment. As with his last album, Peachtree Road allows these astonishing twelve songs to speak for themselves. Who would have thought that, over three decades into his incredible career, Elton would be turning out some of the finest music of his career? His spirit is often taken for granted, his talent forgotten in his A-list public profile. But as he sings himself on ‘Turn The Lights Out When You Leave’: “I aint gonna die. I aint gonna cry. I will wear my heart out on my sleeve.” Elton’s musical life is marked by a startling resilience, openness and refusal to let his talent simmer.

A former student of the Royal Academy of Music in London, England, the man born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in 1947 left school and immediately furrowed his path in the music industry. His first band, Bluesology, was formed in 1961. He would later take his stage name from the Bluesology saxophonist Elton Dean and their charismatic frontman, Long John Baldry. Frustrated by his arduous touring dues being paid behind other performers, Elton was introduced to Bernie Taupin in 1966 by Liberty Records. Amazingly, their first compositions were conducted by mail. In 1968 they became staff songwriters for Dick James’ DJM label, farming out music to budding pop stars.

Elton and Bernie’s prolific nature was established early in his career. By the time Elton’s self-titled breakthrough album and evergreen hit ‘Your Song’ had introduced him to an international stage in 1970, they had honed their skill to such a degree that Taupin could turn out a lyric in half an hour and Elton could compose to it within the hour. This reaped huge benefits, and in the period between 1972-76, they turned out a stellar three albums a year, including the still dearly beloved Madman Across The Water, Tumbleweed Connection, Honky Chateau, Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy and Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only The Piano Player. Amongst these, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, with its string of American Number One hit singles and unbroken two month run at the top of the Billboard Top 100, became an all time classic. 1974 was a good year for Elton. Not only did he sign a record breaking 8 million dollar deal with MCA, he co-wrote John Lennon’s comeback single ‘Whatever Gets You Through The Night’, and was joined by his fellow legend on stage at Madison Square Gardens to perform it. Their mutual appreciation society ran until Lennon’s cruel, untimely and premature death in 1981.

The late 70s are often underwritten in Elton’s historical cannon, but they were a time of new rebirth and artistic experimentation that is only now beginning to be reappraised. Though his relationship with Taupin had come to a temporary standstill, his ambitious double album Blue Moves has long been a favourite amongst fans, A Single Man provided a fortuitous musical hook-up with Gary Osbourne, and his 1977 sessions with Philly Soul producer Thom Bell provided him with a Number One UK hit last year in the form of ‘Are You Ready For Love’, when it was re-released due to demand from influential British DJs. This is an ongoing pattern. Elton has always been given props from the unlikeliest quarters. Courtney Love and Michael Stipe have both told the artist that he was the soundtrack to their 1970s. The filmmaker Cameron Crowe has immortalised ‘Tiny Dancer’ in his fictional rock-umentary, Almost Famous.

John and Taupin were reunited for 21 At 33 in 1980. The album swiftly reacquainted Elton with the Top Ten and introduced a new purple patch for the artist. In retrospect the album Jump Up! with the smash single ‘Blue Eyes’ and Lennon tribute ‘Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)’, was a dress rehearsal for his return to peak form on Too Low For Zero, the home of two of Elton’s live favourites to this day, ‘I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues’ and ‘I’m Still Standing’, his valedictory song to the troubles he had gone through. The 80s were littered with platinum albums and Top 40 singles: ‘Nikita’, ‘Sad Songs (Say So Much)’ and the rousing ‘I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That’.

In 1991 Elton established the Elton John AIDS Foundation, his pioneering charity dedicated to breakthrough work on behalf of those around the world suffering from HIV and related illnesses. The next year he released the double platinum album The One. Perhaps it is coincidence, or perhaps the dawning of a new day, but the start of the last four decades have proved creatively and commercially lucrative periods for Elton. The 90s saw him rise to new heights. He broke records again by signing a $39 million publishing deal in ‘92. His collaboration with Tim Rice on music for Disney’s The Lion King garnered not only a Best male pop Grammy but his first Academy Award. Oscar said hello to Elton. He has since collaborated with Rice again on the Broadway smash Aida and his score for Billy Elliot: The Musical is expected to open in 2005. The musical bug is clearly catching. Elton and Bernie Taupin together have written the music for Anne Rice’s Vampire Lestat, opening on Broadway next year.

The late 90s were a time of intense personal tragedy for Elton, with the loss of his good friends, fashion design guru Gianni Versace and Diana, the Princess of Wales. The untimely death of the Princess would provide him with the biggest single hit of his career, a rewrite of his Marilyn Monroe tribute ‘Candle In The Wind’, which he would perform at the Princess’ funeral. In the Canadian Top Ten for three whole years, the single is now the biggest selling in the world, ever, surpassing Bing Crosby’s ‘White Christmas’.

The new millennium has seen Elton invigorated and back at the top of his game. On top of Billy Elliot and Songs From The West Coast, he has undertaken a three year residency with The Red Piano show in Las Vegas, art-directed by the brilliant conceptualist, David LaChapelle. Peachtree Road is the icing on the cake of an already stellar decade. As ever, the best words on Elton John come from Bernie Taupin: “Fortune and fame are so fleeting these days / I’m glad to say that I’m still around” sings Elton on the already classic ‘The Weight Of the World’. And how.

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Elton John - Peachtree Road