Elton John in the 80s

Elton John illustrious career started in the late 1960s but made his mark on the charts in the 1970s with the help of his long term song writer Bernie Taupin.

He has sold over 250 million records and his single in 1997 'Candle in the Wind' as a tribute to the late Diana Princess of Wales is the best selling single ever in the UK and America. HE has numerous award ranging from Grammys, BRIT awards, Academy awards as well as being knighted for his services to Music and Charity.

The 1980s was a busy period for Elton and the decade began with 2 new releases '21 33' and 'the fox' which were recorded around the late 1970s but hit the shelves in the 1980s. The producer Chris Thomas worked on the second album and he worked with the likes of Sex Pistols and INXS amongst others.

A follow up album 'Jump Up' was released and featured the single hit 'empty garden' but again it made no great shapes in the charts. However, 1983 saw the release of the album 'too low for zero'  and it featured two hit singles 'I'm still standing' and 'I guess that's why they call it the blues' which featured Stevie Wonder on harmonica. This was followed up by the release of 'Breaking Hearts' which featured 'Passengers' and 'sad songs say so much'.

The next album was 'Ice on fire' which featured the classic song 'Nikita' with a video promo produced by Ken Russell. He also did a lot of charity work and one of his passions was AIDS research and he collaborated with Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder for 'that's what friends are for'

He also starred in the Live Aid concert in 1985 at Wembley and song his old songs from the 1970s and sang with Kiki Dee for the perennial favourite 'don't go breaking my heart'.

Not content with music and his charity work he found time to run a football club. He took over Watford in the 1970s and invested large sums of money to see the club rise from the fourth division to the first division culminating in a FA cup final appearance in 1984 which they lost to Everton. He eventually sold the club in 1987 and remained as a President of the club.

During the 1980s he released 9 studio albums with four going top ten with 'sleeping with the past' reaching number one in the UK. Four of his albums reached the top 10 in America with '21 33' the top achiever at number 13. He released a staggering 41 singles during the 1980s as singles, EP and live releases. Seven of those singles reached the top 10 in the UK with 'Nikita' reaching the highest at number 3. In America 6 reached the top 10 with 1988 offering 'I don't wanna go on with you like
that'.