The online illustrated Elton John Discography
by David Bodoh
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Ever since Elton John started on the road to superstardom, there have been authors writing books about his public and personal life. This page catalogs the various biographies and other related books written about Elton John. Some of the entries here are second printings or from different countries written in different languages, but all of them have unique cover designs. They are presented here in chronological order of year published. Some books still in print have links to purchase the book from Amazon.com.
Title: The Elton John Scrapbook
Author: Mary Anne Cassata
Year: 2002
publisher: Citadel Press, Kensington Publishing Corp.
ISBN: 0-8065-2322-0
pages: 222
binding: softcover
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[description text from foreword:]
For more than thirty years, Elton John has endeared himself to millions of American fans by charting, touring, recording and entertaining with unparalled [sic] enthusiasm. The England-born star has confounded the oddmakers with his staying power. While many of his peers from the time of his 1970 U.S. debut have since disappeared from the public eye, Elton remains vital, vibrant and highly visible. Along the way, he has created a virtual soundtrack to life for generations of music lovers.

If you've ever seen him in concert, if you've ever admired his manic piano playing on albums like Madman Across the Water, if you've ever bopped to "Crocodile Rock" or hummed the chorus to "Sad Songs" or taken a child to see The Lion King, if you've ever been amazed by the blending of his music with the lyrics of Bernie Taupin - you know what it's all about.

You know why he's a legend. You know why he's one of the few people on a first-name basis with the world. And you will have fun with this book.

The Elton John Scrapbook offers a rollicking journey through decades of memories - a celebration of the life and career of one man. Whether you are a new fan or an old one, these pages will connect you with one of our premier entertainers and give you a greater appreciation for his genius.

- Tom Stanton, publisher of East End Lights (The Magazine for Elton John Fans) - 1990-2001.

Title: Elton John: Rocket Man
Author: Elizabeth J. Rosenthal
Year: 2003
publisher: unknown
ISBN: 5-699-04355-1
Country: Russia
pages: 703
binding: hardcover
This is the only known Elton John bigoraphy to be published in Russia. It was translated from the English pressing to Russian.
Title: Elton John and His London Lifestyle
Year: 2003
publisher: Sotheby's London
ISBN: L03503
pages: 176
binding: softcover
[description text from foreword:]
I will be sad to say farewell to so many of the items that I have come to love, and have given me so much aesthetic pleasure over the years, but those feelings of loss are tempered by the hope that they in turn will give others the same sense of joy that they have brought me.

signed, Elton John

Title: Rock And Roll Hall Of Famers
Author: Katherine White
Year: 2003
publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group
ISBN: 0-8239-3641-4
pages: 112
binding: hardcover
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Juvenile scholastic book published in a series of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame artists. Includes selected discography, glossary, and a list of other cited works published on Elton John.
Title: Elton Made In England
Author: Judy Parkinson
Year: 2003
publisher: Michael O'Mara Books Limited
ISBN: 1-85479-314-4
pages: 256
binding: hardcover
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[description text from overleaf:]
Sir Elton John is, without doubt, the world's most succesful singer-sonwriter, pianist and entertainer rolled into one. The ultimate rock superstar, he has enjoyed the highs and lows of success and excess in equal measure. Renowned for his extravagant lifestyle, unstinting generosity and the occasional 'Little Moment', he is a friend to stars and royalty alike.

In this incisive new biography Judy Parkinson explores the life and work of Elton John, from his childhood and schooldays in Pinner, Middlesex, and his early days with the band, Bluesology, and follows his extensive music career of more than thirty years, through to his present-day top-celebrity status.

Born Reginald Dwight, a shy, self-conscious boy with an extraordinary talent as a pianist, he developed into a glittering phenomenon on stage, disguising his physical shortcomings under a vast array of outlandish costumes and accessories. Together with his songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin, with whom he has collaborated since 1967, he has had a prolific musical career, having written or recorded more than 500 songs over the past thirty-four yeaars.

Not without controversy, Elton has led a complicated life under the media spotlight, surviving suicide attempts, the effects of drugs and alcohol addictions, and bulimia. An ill-fated marriage ended in divorce after less than five years, and he was subsequuently plagued by a number of tabloid-inspired gay-sex allegations. He recovered from such personal crises, however, to found th Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992 - a charity which has raised more than £20 million for AIDS victims and research into the disease - and was knighted in 1998 for his charity work and services to music.

Illustrated with 16 pages of colour photographs, Elton - Made in England is an extensively researched and insightful biography of Britain's best-known performer.

Title: Elton John Superstar
Author: Judy Parkinson
Year: 2003
publisher: Fackerltrager Verlag
ISBN: 3-7716-4304-X
Country: Germany
pages: 256
binding: hardcover
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[description text from back cover:]
Sir Elton John ist unbestritten der erfolgreichste unter den Superstars der Rock-Musik: In der vergangenen 34 Jahren hat er in fast jedem Jahr mehr als ein Album herausgebracht. Der englische Exzentriker verkaufte bislang mehr Platten als Elvis Presley oder die Beatles. Mehr als 500 Songs hat diese lebende Metapher für das. Außergewöhnliche komponiert oder aufgenommen und während der vergangenen drei Jahrzehnte einen fast ununterbrochenen weltweiten Erfolg gefeiert - mit mindestens 60 Hits in den Top Forty und 43 Bestseller-Alben. Sein der tödlich verunglückten Prinzessin Diana gewidmeter Song «Candle In The Wind '97» wurde die meistverkaufte Single aller Zeiten und hat der Stiftung, die zum Gedenken an Diana gegründet wurde, $30 Mio. eingebracht. Für seine musikalischen Verdienste wurde Elton John 1998 von Queen Elizabeth II. zum Ritter geschlagen. 2002 erhielt er die Ehrendoktorwürde der Royal Academy of Music.

Seine Lebensgeschichte ist eine Reise, die über Triumphe und Rückschläge endlich zum Ziel innerer Ruhe führte. Sie beginnt mit dem spektakulären Aufstieg zu Ruhm und Reichtum, dem ein ebenso gewaltiger Absturz folgt. Zu ihr gehören Selbstmordversuche, Drogensucht und Entzug, Ehe und Scheidung, Homosexuellenskandale, Heilung von seinen Suchtkrankheiten, Beleidigungsklagen und Versöhnung. Sein sensationelles Comeback lässt ihn wieder zu einer viel geliebten, weltweit bekannten Persönlichkeit werden.

Die international angesehene Biografin Judy Parkinson zeichnet einfühlsam ein facettenreiches Bild der privaten und öffentlichen Person Elton John, das durch zahlreiche brillante Fotos abgerundet wird.

Title: Elton John Made In England
Author: Judy Parkinson
Year: 2003
publisher: unknown
Country: China
pages: 403
binding: softcover
All text in Chinese. Cover has an OBI strip.
Title: World Musicmakers
Author: John O'Mahony
Year: 2004
publisher: Blackbirch Press
ISBN: 1-56711-972-7
pages: 64
binding: hardcover
This is a re-print of the original 1993 title "World's Greatest Composers" by author Michael O'Mahony.
Title: Dream Ticket
Author: Paul Flynn
Year: 2004
publisher: HST Management
ISBN: 0-9548942-0-0
pages: 112
binding: hardcover
Commission link to Amazon product
[description text from back cover:]
A ticket to any Elton John show is indeed a dream ticket, and this gathering of more than a hundred photos, many never or seldom seen before is as much a journal of the extraordinary distance he has covered across four decades as it is a snapshot of the energy and personality Elton has always delivered, whether on stage or record.

If it's also a book about contrasts it's because he is a man of contrasts, and throughout these pages the images portray his journey across the years, from blue jeans to peacock-like resplendence and back again, from unbridled extravagance to mature, monochrome elegance.

The multi-faceted showman celebrated in this gallery may display countless aspects, but indubitably they are all part of one larger-than-life persona. This is Elton, and this is a picture of how he has carried his incoparable music into the hearts and minds of his global audience.

Title: Elton John de A à Z
Author: Stephane Boudsocq
Year: 2005
publisher: Groupe Express éditions
ISBN: 2-84343-294-4
Country: France
pages: 119
binding: softcover
[description text from back cover:]
Il est l'une des plus grandes rock stars de la planète et ça fait près de quarante ans que ça dure! Capable d'écrire les plus belles ballades intimistes comme de faire se lever un stade tout entier, Elton John est infatigable. Sur scène, en studio ou dans son engagement contre le sida, Elton insuffle ine énergie toujours communicative. À la fois crooner, entertainer, romantique ou provacateur, il est l'artiste le plus connu du Royaume-Uni, il a côtoyé les plus grands et a même été anobli par la reine. Plusieurs générations fredonnent "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", "Song for Guy" ou "Candle in the Wind", autant de mélodies devenues immortelles. De A comme Aida à Z comme Zizanie, ce MusicBook retrace l'étonnant parcours de sir Reginald.
Title: A Voice Louder Than Rock and Roll
Author: Caleb Quaye and Dale Berryhill
Year: 2006
publisher: Vision Publishing
ISBN: 0-9762730-1-2
pages: 196
binding: softcover
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[description text from back cover:]
ROCK OF AGES: "When I was hobnobbing with some of the biggest stars popular music has ever produced - Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Pete Townshend, Lou Reed, Hall And Oates, and, most notably, Elton John - I thought I had what matters in life. If I had stopped to think about it, I would have dismissed the idea of religious faith as something unreal. Today, I see that it was the fame and the success that were unreal and transient, and that it is my religious faith that is meaningful and lasting.

"What the music business has, I don't need, but what I have in my heart, the music business needs. What I have in my heart is needed by all the famous people I've worked with through the years. What I have in my heart is needed by all the young people who turn to rock music in a vain search for an antidote to the pain and despair they feel. What I have in my heart is a living relationship with Jesus Christ."

- Caleb Quaye

Title: A Boy Called Elton
Author: Peter Robinson
Year: 2006
publisher: Popjustice
ISBN: 1-905548-08-7
Country: UK
pages: 44
binding: hardcover
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[description text from back cover:]
Elton likes to spend lots of money on flowers and shopping.

Elton is one of the most famous singers in the whole wide world.

This is his story.

Title: Sir Elton John
Author: Bertrand Meyer-Stabley
Year: 2007
publisher: Payot
ISBN: 978-2-228-090173-4
Country: France
pages: 229
binding: softcover
[description text from back cover:]
En Mars 2007, Sir Reginald Kenneth Dwight fête son soixantième anniversaire et ses quarante ans de carrière. Cette nouvelle ne présenterait guère d'intérêt si le sexagénaire en question ne s'appelait, à la scène et pour la postérité, Elton John.

Elton l'excentrique, Elton l'exubérant, dont les facéties et le mauvais goût tapageur ont souvent occulté la véritable personnalité. Derrière le masque en trompe-l'œil s'est longtemps caché un artiste sensible, compositeur fécond et pianiste surdoué. Pourtant, cet homme adulé par des millions de fans ne s'est pas aimé; il a cherché un exutoire dans l'alcool, le sexe et la drogue.

À l'approche de la cinquantaine, Elton John s'offre le luxe d'un repentir sincère : il fait la paix avec lui-même et affiche son homosexualité. Il recontre le grand amour, s'investit dans l'aide aux malades du sida, compose de somptueuses musiques de films et des comédies musicales.

De son premier mariage avec Renate Blauel au second avec David Furnish, de sa belle amitié avec la princesse Diana à sa tendresse pour Gianni Versace, de sa complicité avec John Lennon à ses disputes avec Madonna ou George Michael, voici racontée l'une des plus grandes rock stars de la planète, tantôt docteur Elton, tantôt mister John.

Journaliste et biographe, Bertrand Meyer-Stabley est notamment l'auteur chez Payot d'un remarquable Noureev (2003).

Title: Elton the Biography
Author: David Buckley
Year: 2007
publisher: André Deutsch
ISBN: 978-0-233-00183-8
Country: UK
pages: 416
binding: hardcover
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[description text from overleaf:]
One of music's true global superstars and most admired figures, Elton John has sold an estimated 200 million albums worldwide to date, and continues to appear regularly in the singles charts, thanks largely to a series of high-profile collaborations with new faces.

But the Queen Mum of Pop is loved as much for his outrageous personality and outspokenness as for his music. He's not afraid of drawing attention to the perceived shortcomings of others, and regularly delivers public admonishment, but he is also the first to recognise his own lapses in judgement.

After all, he is the man who himself admitted that in one of his more comedic cocaine-fuelled moments he phoned his agent 'to tell him to do something about the wind outside my hotel room'. Such shamelessness, and sheer silliness, rival anything uttered by the snotties of punks or the most outrageous of shock-rockers, yet it is so typically Elton John: honest, and wittily intemperate.

Tragedy and heartbreak have played a large part in his life too. Behind the parties, the hedonism, the lavish stage costuming and the silly glasses lies a more sombre story. There have been disputes with managers, legal wranglings, splits and a divorce. Added to that there have been serious health problems, a very public battle with his expanding waistline and receding hairline, addictions and spells when he wanted to quit the business altogether.

But today he's in a stable relationship with civil partner David Furnish. His demons and critical stock is in the ascendancy. With popular acts such as the Scissor Sisters sounding more like Elton than Elton himself, after years in MOR wilderness, Elton and his music are cool again.

Drawing on numerous first-hand interviews with many of his associates and musical collaborators, this page-turning story of high drama and prodigious enduring talent traces Elton's astonishing journey through life as the collosus of camp, while also offering a critical study of his work, and analysing afresh his contribution to popular music.

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