In the early spring of newly post-war Britain, Reginald Kenneth Dwight (legally changed to Elton John at the age of 20) was born in his grandparents' government-assisted house. It was the wettest, coldest March on record and the gloom of the long harsh English winter had not yet passed off. These are the inauspicious beginnings for the man who was destined to become one of the most successful and flamboyant musical artists of the modern age. It was his mother who discovered that he was a piano prodigy when she heard him picking out, by ear, "The Skater's Waltz" by Winifred Atwell. John was four years old.

It was this amazing talent that led John to win a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 11. This meant that, in addition to his regular school, he would be taking classes on Saturdays, in London, at the Academy. It was his mother and step-father, affectionately nicknamed "Derf" by John, who would help him break into music by helping him become a pianist and singer in the local pub at weekends. At the age of 17, John and his friends formed an English R&B group called Bluesology and although the band supported many big name acts on tour (most notably; Patti LaBelle and The Bluebelles and The Isley Brothers) Bluesology wasn't John's doorway to success. In 1967 John answered an ad in the NME that would lead to one of the most important partnership's John would ever form. The Artists and Repertoire manager for Liberty Records, Ray Williams, placed the ad looking for song writers and both John and a young lyricist named Bernie Taupin answered the ad. Taupin wrote the lyrics and John put them to music. The newly formed team didn't stay long at Liberty, quickly moving to rival label, DJM Records. Over the next two years the duo wrote easy-listening songs for many of DJM's biggest artists, but they also wrote more complex music for John to record.

John's debut album Empty Sky (1969), was largely ignored, however his second album, Elton John, released just a year later, produced John's first Top 10 hit (in both the US and UK), "Your Song". After the release of his second album John had his first American concert at The Troubadour in LA and from this first performance, he showed a natural proclivity to showmanship that would eventually make him one of the world's most popular live performers. Over the next 18 years John's career skyrocketed as he released one album almost every year, most notably: Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player (1973), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973), Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975), and Rock of the Westies (1975). These albums produced numerous Top 10 hits including "Crocodile Rock", "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", "Bennie and the Jets", "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" and "Candle in the Wind". This latter track has been released three times -- in 1974, 1990, and 1997 -- and is the highest-selling single of all time.

In 1994 John teamed with famed Broadway lyricist Tim Rice (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita) to write the music for the Disney movie The Lion King. One song from the film, "Can You Feel the Love Tonight", won the duo a Grammy (Best Male Pop Vocal Performance), a Golden Globe (Best Original Song for) and an Academy Award (Best Original Song). He has composed for another Disney film, The Road to El Dorado, and several highly successful musical theatre productions, most notably Aida and Billy Elliot the Musical.

John continues to perform live and release the occasional album. In 2001 he released Songs from the West Coast and declared it would be his last studio album; however in 2004 he released his twenty-eighth studio album Peachtree Road, and in 2006 The Captain & The Kid followed, an autobiographical return to the themes of 1975 album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. He told Rolling Stone magazine in 2006 that he would like "to work with Pharrell, Timbaland, Snoop, Kanye, Eminem and just see what happens".