You don’t wish to miss Elton John & Bernie Taupin: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Fashionable Music, which is able to air in primetime on PBS stations nationwide on Monday (April 8). (Test native listings.)
The 2-hour particular was taped throughout a tribute live performance at DAR Structure Corridor in Washington, D.C. on March 20. Billboard had a (fortunate) correspondent within the room, who filed this report.
The success of the present is a tribute to the standard and vary of the songs written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, in fact, and in addition to good manufacturing decisions by Ken Ehrlich, who govt produced and wrote the present. Ehrlich, who oversaw the annual Grammy telecast for 40 years, integrated discuss segments with each songwriters, in addition to Elton’s long-time music director Davey Johnstone; previous Gershwin Prize recipients Sir Paul McCartney (the one earlier British honoree), Carole King, Stevie Marvel and Emilio & Gloria Estefan; and Robert Hilburn, the previous Los Angeles Instances pop music critic whose rave assessment of Elton’s 1970 present on the Troubadour in L.A. gave the singer an enormous increase.
These discuss segments present a lot context and perception. In a single, Elton stated how a lot American music has at all times meant to him. “Thanks, America, for the music you’ve given us all around the world. It’s an unbelievable legacy that you’ve – all of the great blues, the jazz, classical, all of the songs the Gershwin brothers [George and Ira] wrote. It’s simply unbelievable. … I’m so proud to be British and to be right here in America to obtain this award, as a result of all my heroes have been American.”
Elton additionally put his music with Bernie within the context of the Nice American Songbook. “We write songs that we hope will final. And our songs have lasted – and so have the Gershwins, Rodgers & Hammerstein, all these great folks. The Cole Porters of the world. They wrote traditional songs, and when you write a traditional that individuals love, it by no means goes away.”
Elton’s band backed the varied artists, main Elton to say “That is the primary time in my life the place I’ve sat within the viewers and listened to my band. And I do know they’re good, however they’re superb!” He additionally paid the last word tribute to his companion. “He provides me the lyrics after which I write the music. With out the lyrics, I’d be working in any file retailer on this planet.”
Elton John and Bernie Taupin: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Fashionable Music is a co-production of WETA Washington, D.C.; Ken Ehrlich Productions, Inc.; and the Library of Congress. It will likely be out there by way of broadcast and streaming on PBS.org and the PBS App.
An finish title card devoted the present to Tony Bennett, the 2017 Gershwin Prize recipient, who died in July at 96. The present honoring Bennett and final 12 months’s present honoring Joni Mitchell each obtained Primetime Emmy nods. This present additionally deserves Emmy consideration.
All however one of many 14 songs carried out on the present appeared on Billboard’s 2022 rating The 75 Greatest Elton John Songs: Employees Listing, which was keyed to the star’s seventy fifth birthday that 12 months. In case you missed it, right here it’s. Learn it earlier than or after the present, however not throughout. You don’t wish to miss a second.
Listed here are all of the performances on the present ranked from least to most memorable. (Three artists carried out a number of songs. We listed their songs collectively.) No shade to the performers who aren’t ranked excessive: The competitors for “better of the night time” honors was fierce. And the way can Elton not be No. 1 on his personal tribute? We’ve all heard him sing his songs many occasions, so there was no component of shock there like there was with the highest three alternatives.
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Charlie Puth, “Don’t Let the Solar Go Down on Me” (1974)
Puth, at 32 the youngest artist on the invoice, appeared slightly daunted by the duty of performing this stately rock ballad, however he pulled it off. Nonetheless, it received’t make anybody overlook both Elton’s authentic, which reached No. 2 on the Sizzling 100 in 1974, or the 1991 George Michael/Elton John pairing that went all the way in which to No. 1.
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Maren Morris, “I Guess That’s Why They Name it the Blues” (1983)
The pop and nation singer did a wonderful job on this ballad, which Taupin stated that he regards as one among their finest songs. “It’s positively one among our most interesting songs…I imply, it’s a easy music, but it surely’s a wonderful music.” It’s additionally the one music carried out on the present that wasn’t written by Elton and Bernie alone. Davey Johnstone joined them in penning this music.
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Annie Lennox, “Border Music” (1970)
Lennox opened the present by performing this gospel-inflected ballad, which Aretha Franklin became a prime 40 hit on the Sizzling 100 in late 1970. The Queen of Soul’s model entered the highest 40 the identical week (Dec. 19, 1970) as Elton’s first prime 40 hit as an artist, “Your Music” — so his songs have been his calling card from the beginning.
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Brandi Carlile, “Madman Throughout the Water” (1971) and “Skyline Pigeon” (1969)
Carlile carried out these two early album cuts in separate spots on the present. The tender ballad “Sky Pigeon” was an ideal option to observe an emotional, however overlong, phase that featured Elton’s work with the Elton John AIDS Basis, in addition to his friendship with Ryan White.
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Garth Brooks, “Sorry Appears to Be the Hardest Phrase” (1976) and “Daniel” (1973)
Brooks, the 2020 Gershwin Prize recipient, ably carried out these prime 10 Sizzling 100 hits in separate spots on the present. Kim Bullard’s accordion break within the torch music “Sorry Appears to Be the Hardest Phrase” was intriguing and extremely efficient.
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Billy Porter, “The Bitch is Again” (1974)
Porter, who additionally hosted the present, carried out this music from the middle aisle within the viewers. Along with being the hardest-rocking single Elton ever took to the highest 10 on the Sizzling 100, this music speaks to the inside brat in all of us: Who wouldn’t sometimes like to chop free and say “I don’t like these!/ My God, what’s that?”
The music nonetheless has the electrical jolt that it dropped at pop radio in 1974, when it went up in opposition to extra sedate hits by the likes of John Denver and Olivia Newton-John. Porter (fairly needlessly) stated, “Pay attention, it’s 2024. I don’t need you to be offended by the phrase ‘bitch.’ The queer group makes use of it as a love letter.” If “bitch” may fly on the radio 50 (gulp) years in the past, it’s a non-issue on this rather more permissive period.
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Elton John, “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” (1972), “Saturday Night time’s Alright for Combating” (1973) and “Your Music” (1970)
Even with 29 prime 10 hits on the Sizzling 100 to select from for his three-song mini-set, it’s fascinating that Elton chosen an album monitor, “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” (from 1972’s Honky Chateau). He additionally selected “Saturday Night time’s Alright…,” a Stones-like rocker that, on Billboard’s 2022 checklist, Melinda Newman referred to as “an unadulterated mix of youthful pleasure and aggression.” Elton was 26 when it was launched. He’s now 77 – a reminder that youthfulness is an perspective, not a quantity.
“Your Music” might be Elton’s most universally beloved music – and for good cause. The ballad marries a swish melody to a splendidly conversational lyric. “It could be fairly easy,” Elton sings, and that simplicity is on the coronary heart of the music’s enchantment. In her remarks, Carole King referred to as the music “perfection” – and he or she is aware of a factor or two about writing good pop songs.
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Jacob Lusk, “Bennie and the Jets” (1973)
Lusk, the lead singer of Gabriels, was most likely the least well-known performer on the invoice. Lusk carried out “Are You Prepared for Love” alongside Elton on the Glastonbury Pageant final June, however he hasn’t actually damaged by way of within the U.S. but.
His extremely theatrical, falsetto efficiency of this smash, which received the viewers on its toes, ought to elevate his profile. This “spaced-out” music is likely one of the most eccentric songs in Elton’s catalog of hits. The selection in early 1974 to go along with this as a single, fairly than a extra typical Elton monitor like “Concord” or “Candle within the Wind,” was one of many boldest and finally smartest of his profession.
The music ranked No. 7 on Billboard’s 2022 checklist of Elton’s finest songs. Andrew Unterberger wrote “It performs virtually like a parody of glam rock… Elton and Bernie might have finally been too tradition-bound at coronary heart to essentially match into glam full-time, however they’ve nice enjoyable making an attempt on the furs for one music.”
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Metallica, “Funeral for a Pal / Love Lies Bleeding” (1973)
This two-part opus, a spotlight of Elton’s 1973 double-album masterwork Goodbye Yellow Brick Highway, topped Billboard’s 2022 checklist of Elton’s 75 finest songs. Metallica amped up the rock element significantly, taking it from about 6.5 to 10 (if not 11). The outcome was undoubtedly the hardest-rocking quantity within the historical past of the Gershwin Prize occasion. At night time’s finish, Bernie praised Elton’s band, calling them “the very best band on this planet – exterior of Metallica, in fact.”
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Joni Mitchell (with Brandi Carlile and Annie Lennox), “I’m Nonetheless Standing” (1983)
We’re so used to listening to this as a spunky, sassy pop music, are you able to even think about it slowed-down? Nicely, rattling if it doesn’t work that method too! Mitchell, the 2023 Gershwin Prize recipient, carried out it as a jazzy, mid-tempo ballad, which introduced out the music’s sly humor. She additionally modified some lyrics, with Elton and Bernie’s permission, which superfan Brandi Carlile stated “is actually probably the most Joni Mitchell factor I’ve ever heard of.”
Elton and Bernie wrote this music to have a good time Elton’s surviving some profession and private downs within the late ’70s and early ’80s. These have been strange struggles in comparison with the back-from-the-brink challenges Mitchell has overcome: 9 years in the past, she suffered a mind aneurysm rupture, which required her to endure bodily remedy and be taught to stroll once more. (That was unstated, however apparent to individuals who know her story.) At one level, Mitchell waved the strolling stick she nonetheless must get round within the air. That defiant gesture added to the music’s sense of uplift – and the present’s sense of triumph.