Elton John: Encyclopedia II - Elton John - Musical style and voice

Elton John - Musical style and voice

In the 1970s, Elton John's sound was immediately set apart from others by being piano-based in a rock world dominated by guitars. Another early characteristic was a set of dynamic string arrangements by Paul Buckmaster. Coupled with Taupin's often opaque but emotionally resonant lyrics, the results were unique for their time. Songs in this style included Sixty Years On, Burn Down the Mission, Take Me to the Pilot, Levon, Madman Across the Water, and the best-known of these, Tiny Dancer.

Your Song, one of his earliest and most popular hits, incorporates some other features found in many of his songs:

• It is in binary form, with the verse repeated before the chorus begins;
• The piano accompaniment is prominent, though the song also features an orchestra;
• It uses a slowly building crescendo that brings the song to a tutti climax. Other songs that follow this pattern include Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me and Rocket Man.

John also has a distinctive vocal style. In particular, his phrasing is often a bit metronomic and sometimes has a curiously off-kilter, "rushed" quality especially at the end of lines (example: the phrase "like a puppy child" in the song Amoreena). He also, at least in his classic period in the 1970s, would sometimes sweep up from his normal tenor into a Four Seasons-like falsetto.

Elton John underwent throat surgery to remove potentially cancerous nodules from his vocal chords in January 1987 whilst on tour, a necessity he originally said was due to an infection, but later said was the result of excessive drug abuse. The problems with his voice can clearly be heard in his raspy singing on the Live In Australia album (released 1987). He made a full recovery but continued to engage in drugs for a few years yet. The surgery in 1987 also had a dramatic effect on John's voice, and he found that he could no longer sing in falsetto as well as he previously could and that he now sang in a lower range.

The change in Elton John's voice has been one that he has largely played down, with Elton commenting fifteen years after the surgery that he was "singing better than ever." The use of studio effects were evidently added to his voice on his first UK #1 Hit Sacrifice (1990). The release of Songs From The West Coast, his 2001 album showed very clearly how different his voice is to his prime. It is a matter of opinion which singing style is better but few would deny that Elton John remains an excellent and operatic singer.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Musical style and voice", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki