Elton John_Bernie Taupin Caricature

Elton John/Bernie Taupin Caricature, shown here (John, age 23 and Taupin age 20) November 17, 1970 at the A&R Recording Studios, New York, NY, for a live radio broadcast on WABC-FM (later WPLJ). This recording was never planned as a release, but bootleg recordings of the broadcast were so popular, that it was released in 1971 as a live album. John cut his hand at some point during the performance, and by the end of the show, the piano keys were covered in blood.

Elton John is an English singer, pianist, and composer. He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriting 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. He has more than fifty Top 40 hits.

In 1967, Bernie Taupin answered an advertisement for talent that was placed in the “New Musical Express” by Liberty records A&R man Ray Williams. Elton John answered the same ad. Neither Taupin nor John passed the audition for Liberty Records. Elton told the man behind the desk that he could not write lyrics, so the man handed Elton a sealed envelope from the pile of people submitting lyrics, which he opened on the London Underground ride home. The envelope contained poems by Taupin. The duo have collaborated on more than thirty albums to date.

The John/Taupin writing style, which involves Taupin writing the lyrics on his own and John then putting them to music, with no further interaction between the two. The process is still fundamentally the same, though they interact more than they did early on.

Taupin's lyrics include such songs as “Your Song” (their first hit in 1970), “Rocket Man”, “Levon”, “Crocodile Rock”, “Honkey Cat”, “Tiny Dancer”, “Candle In The Wind”, “Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting”, “Bennie And The Jets”, “Goodby Yellow Brick Road”, “Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters”, “Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me”, “Someone Saved My Life Tonight”, “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word”, “The Bitch Is Back” and “Daniel”.

Elton John has received five Grammy Awards, five Brit Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, a Disney Legends award, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.
In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him Number 49 on its list of 100 influential musicians of the rock and roll era. In 2013, Billboard ranked him the most successful male solo artist on the Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists (third overall behind the Beatles and Madonna).
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

In addition to Taupin's writing, much of his time is spent creating his visual art, Taupin began displaying and selling his original artwork in 2010. Consisting of large, mixed media, contemporary works, the art has been shown in select galleries and art fairs across the United States.