Elton John - Sun to go down on one of pop's great performers

In the 1970s, he was responsible for an astonishing 2% of all record sales around the globe and he scored his eighth UK No 1 album as recently as 2021 with The Lockdown Sessions.

- Dave Simpson

When Sir Elton John, 78, performs his farewell UK concert at Glastonbury this weekend he will seal one of pop's most illustrious and enduring legacies.

"His impact on music can't be overstated," says Olly Alexander of Years & Years, with whom Elton duetted at the 2021 Brit awards. "He's constantly played, constantly covered, constantly reinterpreted and he's still having hits."

The singer-songwriter, born Reginald Dwight, has sold more than 300m records, scored 10 UK No 1 singles, and his 32 studio albums include such classics as Honky Château (1972), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973) and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975).

John Lennon hailed him as "the first new thing since the Beatles"; Elton challenged the dominant guitar format to place the piano at the forefront. Kate Bush once said: "Most artists in the mid-70s played guitar but Elton played piano and I dreamed of being able to play like him." Other musicians he influenced include Queen, George Michael and Adele.