Headline : The 50 Best Elton John Songs

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Sugar-rush pop, legit country soul, profound poetic storytelling, over-the-top rock & roll jams: Has any artist from the Sixties-Seventies golden era of singer-songwriters ever mastered all of these arts with the regal flamboyance of Sir Elton Hercules John? The competition’s slim at best. His piano playing and melodic sense blended European classical technique with jazz licks and the country-fried rock & roll styles of Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, with an outrageous sense of style and delivery that took plenty from the latter.  

You can hear the backstory of the artist born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in his music — studying Chopin, Bach, and Beethoven as a precocious preteen at the Royal Academy of Music; falling hard for American R&B and soul; starting an electric blues band, Bluesology, in 1962, the year he turned 15; playing clubs where the Beatles and Rolling Stones hung out; idolizing them alongside the Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, the Band, and Leon Russell as rock music exploded in the late Sixties. He decided to go solo. He changed his name. And soon, plenty of his heroes recognized him as a peer. 

Early on, playing to his strengths as performer and composer, he teamed up with lyricist Bernie Taupin to form one of the great songwriting partnerships of the 20th century — in the tradition of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Leiber and Stoller, Bacharach and David, and the Gershwins, ranking alongside Lennon-McCartney, Jagger-Richards, Garcia-Hunter, any you could name. Taupin wrote the words, under the spell of Dylan and classic country recordings (by Marty Robbins, Johnny Horton, Lefty Frizzell, and the Louvin Brothers in particular). Elton composed bespoke music with killer hooks and elegant plumage, crafting songs that fit him to a T, delivering them with falsetto flourishes and barrelhouse piano runs. On top of it all, Elton was one of the greatest stage performers in pop history, with a fashion sense that rivaled David Bowie, Cher, and George Clinton at their most bonkers, in turn inspiring younger artists from Lady Gaga to Lil Nas X.

Elton’s been a hitmaker nearly from the start. His 1970 gem “Your Song,” from his self-titled second LP, reached the upper tier of international charts that year. Eighteen months later, “Rocket Man” began his run in the Top 10, scoring his first Number Ones soon after with “Crocodile Rock” and “Bennie and the Jets.” But as this list shows, his deep-catalog cuts are equally potent. Singles and album tracks are only part of his success story. Since his 1971 soundtrack for the movie Friends, he’s composed for film and stage: See Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida, Billy Elliot: The Musical, and most famously, The Lion King, written with stage lyricist Sir Tim Rice (Jesus Christ Superstar). The film sold millions and clocked multiple Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe awards — and that’s before it was flipped into the highest grossing theatrical production in the history of Broadway and another film version, with two more soundtracks, including one helmed by Beyoncé. 

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