Elton John and Bernie Taupin: Two Rooms
Elton John and Bernie Taupin are one of the most successful songwriting teams in the history of popular music. Yet their style of collaboration is quite different than their peers.
Elton John writes the music. Bernie Taupin writes the lyrics. But they don’t work together. They have always worked in separate rooms.
The two men discovered the process when Bernie lived in Lincolnshire and Elton lived in Pinner, both in the U.K. At first, Bernie would mail lyrics to Pinner and Elton would write music to the words when they arrived. When they moved in as roommates later, they kept the method the same. Obviously, the process has seemed to work well for the duo throughout the years.
Elton is one of the top-selling solo artists of all time, with 1 diamond, 40 platinum or multi-platinum, and 23 gold albums, over 50 Top 40 hits, and he has sold more than 300 million records worldwide.
On May 4, I’ll be presenting Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. It’s the fourth in a series of The Greatest Albums of the 1970’s. We’ve looked at George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, as well as Sweet Baby James by James Taylor. We take a look “behind the curtain” in how these great albums were inspired and created. Next up is Elton John.
Check here for more information about joining the class. I'd love to see you there.
I’ve also included a short video on the Elton John and Bernie Taupin partnership below.
Have a good weekend! Rob
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