Test your knowledge of Elton John's biggest hits, deep cuts and iconic moments.
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Elton's songs announce themselves at the keyboard: the barrelhouse roll of 'Crocodile Rock,' the soft chords under 'Your Song,' the stutter of 'Bennie and the Jets.' Name it from the piano before the vocal.
The facts behind the songs decide the close calls: a stage name stitched from two musicians, a lyric written over breakfast, and an Oscar-winning hit whose words came from someone other than Bernie Taupin.
Elton's catalog rewards two kinds of knowing. Start with the piano intros everyone recognizes, then sort his music from Bernie Taupin's words, reach the album deep cuts, and finish on the film and duet curveballs.
Elton John songs open at the keyboard, and that is the giveaway. The rolling intro of 'Crocodile Rock,' the gentle chords of 'Your Song,' the stuttered piano of 'Bennie and the Jets' and the swell of 'Rocket Man' are the fast points in any Elton John quiz. Most players name them before the first verse.
Here is the split that trips people up: Elton writes the music, Bernie Taupin writes the words. 'Tiny Dancer' was Taupin's sketch of a girlfriend who sewed for the band, and the lines everyone sings in 'Rocket Man' and 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' are his too. Knowing who wrote the lyric, not just the tune, is what wins the harder rounds.
Beyond the radio staples, real fans separate on the album tracks. 'Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding' and 'Harmony' from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, 'Levon' and the title track of Madman Across the Water, and 'Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting' reward anyone who has played the 1970s run start to finish.
The curveballs come from outside the studio albums. 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight' from The Lion King won an Oscar, but Tim Rice wrote those words, not Taupin. 'Candle in the Wind 1997,' rewritten for Princess Diana's funeral, became one of the best-selling singles ever, and 'Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me' returned to number one as a duet with George Michael. These are where a thorough Elton John quiz ends.
It plays a clip and asks you to name the song. Elton's songs open at the piano, so the intro is often the giveaway, from 'Crocodile Rock' to 'Bennie and the Jets.' Trivia rounds also ask who wrote the words, which is almost always Bernie Taupin.
'Rocket Man,' 'Your Song,' 'Tiny Dancer,' 'Crocodile Rock' and 'Bennie and the Jets' lead, with album cuts like 'Levon' and 'Funeral for a Friend' for the harder rounds.
The piano intros are easy, but the trivia turns on his songwriting. Bernie Taupin wrote most of the lyrics, while The Lion King words came from Tim Rice, and that catches players who assume every Elton hit is a Taupin song.
He was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in Pinner, England, in 1947. He built the stage name from Elton Dean and Long John Baldry, and was knighted as Sir Elton John in 1998.
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