Reginald Kenneth Dwight was born in Pinner, England on March 25, 1947. You know him better as Elton John and here are 20 things you might not know about the Rocket Man:
1. John began playing piano at the age of three.
2. John's parents weren't married until he was six years old. Before then, he stayed with his mom’s parents.
3. John's dad was in the Royal Air Force. He didn't like the idea of his son pursuing music and tried to convince him to become a banker instead.
4. You can see the influence of John's strict dad any time the singer performs. He once said that his wild stage costumes are his way of expressing himself after being so restricted as a kid.
5. John's talents were recognized at a young age and as an 11-year-old, he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. There, he impressed teachers by playing back a four-page piece by Handel after hearing it once.
6. John attended the school and enjoyed playing classical music and singing in the choir, but otherwise, he wasn't a great student. He once stated that since he was able to get good grades without practicing, he skipped classes and rode around on the subway instead.
7. As a 15-year-old, John became a piano player at a nearby pub. He went by the name Reggie and played popular standards.
8. As a teenager, John lived with his mom and her second husband in an apartment building. There, he wrote some of his early iconic songs. He kept on living there until he had four albums simultaneously in the Top 40 in America.
9. At 17, John formed a band called Bluesology. They did pretty well and backed the likes of The Isley Brothers and Patti LaBelle.
10. John created his stage name in honour of Bluesology saxophonist Elton Dean and singer Long John Baldry.
11. John met his longtime songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin, in 1967 after they both answered an ad in NME for work at Liberty Records. The A&R manager gave John a stack of lyrics Taupin wrote and the singer penned music for them then mailed them back to Taupin, starting their decades-long relationship.
12. John and Taupin would go on to become successful songwriters for other artists, taking less than 90 minutes to churn out easy-listening songs.
13. Before he hit it big, John was a session musician. He played piano on The Hollies' "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother."
14. John has had more than 50 hits in the Top 40. His first was 1968's "Your Song."
15. John often sports glasses and he once revealed that he owns 250,000 pairs of them.
16. John made a name for himself in Hollywood and on Broadway too. He wrote the music for the 1994 Disney movie The Lion King, which went on to become a Broadway musical – the highest-grossing Broadway musical of all time, bringing in more than $1 billion U.S.. John also did the music for the stage productions of Aida, Lestat and Billy Elliot.
17. John’s biggest-selling single is “Candle in the Wind.” He wrote it as a tribute to Marilyn Monroe in 1973, but changed it and re-released it in 1997 to honor Princess Diana following her death. It’s since sold more than 33 million copies.
18. John doesn't own a cell phone.
19. John appears in The Who's 1975 film adaptation of Tommy as The Pinball Wizard.
20. John is very close to the coveted EGOT. He's won Grammys, an Oscar and a Tony but the Emmy has remained elusive.
Original article by Dave Basner at iHeartRadio