We’ll kick things off with our congrats to Elton. Step Into Christmas has been certified Triple Platinum by the BPI (British Phonographic Industry). A Step Into Christmas EP is now available, and includes a live version of Rudolph-The-Red-Nosed-Reindeer, performed at a UK concert in 1973. The Crystals‘ rendition was included in Elton John’s Christmas Party. The CD came out in 2005, with some of the proceeds going to the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
Elton thinks this year has been far-out for new music.
He has come out with Rocket-Hour’s Tracks of 2023, and the artists range from Jalen Ngonda to Joni Mitchell.
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And plenty of other lists have been springing up. One places Elton at No. 7. That’s Billboard‘s chart-data for the year’s top-grossing tours, indicating he earned $210 million from 65 shows.
Billboard Year-End Boxscore Top Tours 2023:
#1 Beyoncé $570.5M
#2 Coldplay $342.5M
#3 Harry Styles $338.2M
#4 Morgan Wallen $260.4M
#5 Ed Sheeran $256.9M
#6 P!nk $226.6M
#7 Elton John $210M
#8 The Weeknd $192.5M
#9 Depeche Mode $175.2M
#10 BLACKPINK $148.3M
#11 Karol G $146.9M…— chart data (@chartdata) November 30, 2023
When it comes to top-grossing tours of all time, Taylor Swift is first, hitting over a billion dollars with Eras. As reported by Elton-Blog-33, Elton held the previous record, with Farewell Yellow Brick Road netting $939 million.
David-Furnish was delighted to learn that the Sunday Times named John Preston and Elton’s Watford Forever the best sports book of the year. In the same category, it’s among the Top Five, according to The Guardian.
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Yardbarker has come up the 30 most influential drummers. One of them is Jeff Porcaro, who was only 38 when he died. While he’s been cited for his drum work on Toto‘s hit, Rosanna, we appreciated the musician’s contribution to Dear-John on Elton’s Jump Up! album.
Elton’s longtime drummer, Nigel Olsson, is one of Liberty DeVitto‘s favourites. Billy Joel‘s former bandmate came up with ten records which changed his life, and among them was Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. Liberty told Classic Rock History the LP ”refined” his drumming, with Nigel teaching him to play with ”grace and finesse.”
More recently, a different version of Elton and Ed Sheeran‘s Merry-Christmas was released. It’s by Telford Priory students–the latest group from the UK school to come up with an EJ cover.
Others from Telford-Priory performed I’m Still Standing, and Elton was among those who caught the video. The star liked it so much, he invited them to a concert in June.
Elton and his Merry Christmas partner–who also goes by the name Teddy–-were at Watford together last week. Elton wasn’t happy, said Ed, that the Watford Hornets lost. Both men were in good spirits, though, as they exchanged festive jumpers with each other.
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In 2019, Elton told Good Housekeeping magazine about how he and his family prepare for Christmas. After putting out hot chocolate for Santa and food for the reindeer (what sort, we wonder?), Elton and David wrap up their kids’ gifts. Things ”get frantic” as they try to figure out how to amuse Zachary and Elijah if they wake up at 4 a.m., ”which they invariably do.”
Bernie Taupin feels like Elton took care of him during their ”formative years.” He told Goldmine that Elton was worldly and more socially adept than he was. Bernie still relies on Elton, as he’s the first person he tends to seek advice from. He calls Elton the ”ultimate psychiatrist.”
They use FaceTime (which Elton is ”addicted to”) for a lot of their communications. Bernie enjoys this, too, since rather than just hear him, he gets to see Elton.
Earlier this month, Bernie attended Variety‘s Hitmakers-celebration in Los Angeles, California, where he said it’s not easy to find one’s true songwriting partner, as he did. Bernie wowed Billie Eilish and her brother and collaborator Finneas O’Connell when he presented them with the film song award for Barbie‘s What Was I Made For?
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On Friday, Elton contributed a videotaped message for Barry Humphries‘ memorial service in Sydney, Australia. He spoke of the comic’s ”wonderful jokes and wonderful kindness.”
Elton added that he hoped the attendees had a ”wonderful day,” and urged them to ”celebrate laughter,” since that’s what the 89-year-old was all about.
