2023
Elton John
Bernie Taupin’s songwriting partnership with Elton John is one of the most successful in rock & roll history. Taupin’s narrative songwriting and introspective lyrics served as a precursor to the singer-songwriter movement of the 1970s, and his rich, resonant words left listeners with remarkable images for Elton John and other musicians to melodize.
Induction
Impact
Signature Sound
Bernie Taupin’s late ’60s and early ‘70s collaborations with Elton John featured whimsy, evocative imagery and narrative storytelling, often conjuring vivid scenes of an America he’d not yet visited. With time, his work expanded to encompass both impressionistic lyrics and straightforward social commentary and topics.
With lyrics scribbled on lined paper at breakfast time in Elton John’s mum’s apartment in 1969, this was John’s first Top Ten hit.
From the Museum
Iconic Original Lyrics
These are Taupin’s original handwritten lyrics to Elton John’s breakthrough hit, “Your Song.” According to Taupin, “I scribbled the lyric down on a lined
notepad at the kitchen table of Elton's mother's apartment in the London suburb of Northwood Hills, breakfast time sometime in 1969. That’s it. Plain and simple.”
From the Museum
Iconic Original Lyrics
These are Taupin’s original handwritten lyrics to Elton John’s breakthrough hit, “Your Song.” According to Taupin, “I scribbled the lyric down on a lined
notepad at the kitchen table of Elton's mother's apartment in the London suburb of Northwood Hills, breakfast time sometime in 1969. That’s it. Plain and simple.”
He isn’t just a lyricist. He’s a poet, a conjurer of cinema in words.
Elton John
2024 Hall of Fame Essay
"Taupin and John worked together with an awe-inspiring combination of mechanical efficiency and organic artistry, two minds telepathically melded."
– Parke Puterbaugh
Influence
Bernie Taupin
sealed with a signature
This is the signature that appears on the inductee’s plaque at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to officially commemorate their induction.
More from
the Hall
