Elton John
photo: raph_ph · cc by 2.0 ↗A prodigiously talented pianist from suburban London, Elton John spent his teens backing touring American R&B and soul acts before pairing with lyricist Bernie Taupin and breaking through as a solo act in 1970. He built a run of 1970s hits — Your Song, Crocodile Rock, Bennie and the Jets — out of a pounding, showman's piano style lifted straight from 1950s rock and roll, filtered through his own gift for melody and spectacle, and became a piano-pop reference point for art-pop songwriters like Kate Bush who followed.
Elton John has repeatedly named Little Richard as the single biggest influence on his playing and stage persona, saying that seeing Richard pound the piano and perform with total abandon made him decide, then and there, to be a rock and roll piano player.
listen forTutti Frutti is pure, hammering piano energy from the first note; Elton's own Crocodile Rock is his direct homage to that same pounding, good-time 1950s rock and roll piano style.
Domino is one of the three piano players Elton John has said changed his life as a young musician, admired for a rolling, New Orleans-inflected left hand that made the piano a rhythm instrument as much as a melodic one.
listen forBlueberry Hill rolls along on that easy, syncopated New Orleans piano groove; Elton's own Bennie and the Jets keeps a similarly percussive, rolling left hand underneath its glammed-up piano-rock stomp.
Elton John has also cited Ray Charles among his influences, drawn to how Charles fused gospel fervor and blues phrasing into piano-driven R&B — a combination audible in Elton's own gospel-tinged early ballads.
listen forWhat'd I Say builds from a simple riff into call-and-response, gospel-revival fervor; Elton's early Border Song works from that same well of gospel-soul feeling, piano and voice testifying together.