And while drummer Nigel Olsson recalls seeing Neil Diamond in the audience (via Rolling Stone), Rocketman also places the Beach Boys there giving John a paralytic case of stage fright, but no record of their presence exists. For instance, the first song on the set list wasn’t “Crocodile Rock,” but “Your Song.” “Crocodile Rock” wouldn’t be written until 1973. That said, there are a few key details the film changes. It's also true that Dick James arranged the booking, the club’s owner was Doug Weston (played by Tate Donovan), and that the show was so incredible it put John on the map after just one performance. Rocketman places John’s first American gig at the Troubadour club in West Hollywood, and that part is true. Taupin and John had both answered the same ad looking for songwriters, and since John was a pianist in need of lyrics, Williams handed him an envelope of Taupin’s songs to play with, and the rest is history. However, the film does feature the true story of Taupin and John getting connected at John’s inaugural meeting with his first manager, Ray Williams (via The Late Show With Stephen Colbert). Rocketman does show James railing at the two for not coming up with songs that were easy-listening enough, but it doesn’t really delve into the fact that John and Taupin worked for other artists before their own careers took off. In reality, after meeting lyricist Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell), the duo spent two years working for James, writing pop songs for artists like Roger Cook and Lulu (via Rolling Stone). John has mentioned that his mother bringing home Elvis records was a formative experience in his early years (via Elton John), but the movie shows Farefather presenting his new stepson with an Elvis record as a gift.Īs for his early music career, Rocketman centers almost solely on his performing career, largely sidestepping his work as a staff songwriter for Dick James’ (Stephen Graham) label, DJM Records. The biopic chooses to focus more on her dissatisfaction with her home life and marriage, as well as her penchant for nightlife and eventual second marriage to John’s stepfather, painter Fred Farefather, when John was 14. While this was true, Rocketman leaves out the fact that John’s mother, Sheila (Bryce Dallas-Howard), was also a music fan, and contributed to the family record collection along with her husband. But despite their fraught relationship, Rocketman does credit Dwight with helping to cultivate John’s passion for music, given the older man’s love of jazz and rock and roll (via Your Songs Collectibles). It depicts his father, Stanley Dwight, as a distant man, uncomfortable with showing his son even the most minimal affection. Rocketman begins with Elton John’s childhood in Pinner, living with his parents and grandmother. Elton John contained his first major hit, “Your Song,” and his star-power rose significantly after playing an historic show at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, opening with the hit to a small, but enthusiastic and influential crowd. While they wrote mostly for other artists for the first two years of their employment, in 1969 John released his first album, Empty Sky, followed shortly thereafter by Elton John in 1970. From 1962 to 1969, he and Bluesology toured and backed acts including the Isley Brothers and Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, and it was during this time in 1967 that he met his longtime partner, lyricist Bernie Taupin, and the two started working as staff songwriters for Dick James Music. By the time he was 15, he was playing in pubs and had formed a band called Bluesology (via Ultimate Classic Rock), and left school at the age of 17 to pursue a career in music. He showed an incredible aptitude for music at an early age, which won him a scholarship to the Royal Academy of music at the age of 11, where he attended Saturday classes for five years (via Elton John by Phillip Norman). The thing is, despite remaining faithful to many, many aspects of Elton John’s life, the Rocketman movie does sport some changes and eliminations in its effort to tell a good story.Įlton John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in 1947, and grew up in Pinner, on the outskirts of London. Rocketman tells the true story of iconic artist Elton John, but it's also a dramatization of his life, so fans may be wondering just how accurate the movie is to the singer's story.
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