🌳 Ep. 216: Elton John – Top 6 Songs Memory Mnemonic
đź‘‹ Intro
Hello and welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Memory", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.
I’m Jans, your Mnemonic Man, and today's episode will be on the “Rocket Man” himself, Sir Elton John.
Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in 1947, Elton John is one of the most influential musicians in modern history. Known for his flamboyant style and extraordinary talent as a pianist, Elton John rose to fame in the early 1970s.
His legendary partnership with lyricist Bernie Taupin has produced some of the most enduring songs in popular music history, including “Your Song,” “Rocket Man,” “Tiny Dancer,” and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”
His ability to blend musical styles along with his theatrical flair has endeared him to audiences and made him a global icon. Elton John was a child prodigy and won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music.
He has produced 32 studio albums, won multiple Grammy Awards, two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, and an Emmy, which has resulted in him becoming the 19th person in history to reach EGOT status. He has also been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to music and philanthropy.
Elton John’s final tour was called “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” which started in 2018 and concluded in 2023.
Today’s mnemonic will be on Elton John’s top six songs.
So, with that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.
đź“– Wikipedia Summary
Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947[1]) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting effect on the music industry,[2] and his songwriting partnership with the lyricist Bernie Taupin is one of the most successful in history.[3]
John was the 19th EGOT winner in history. He has sold over 300 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.[4]
John learnt to play piano at an early age, winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. In the 1960s he formed the blues band Bluesology, wrote songs for other artists alongside Taupin, and worked as a session musician, before releasing his debut album, Empty Sky (1969).
Throughout the next six decades, John cemented his status as a cultural icon with 32 studio albums, including Honky Château (1972), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973), Rock of the Westies (1975), Sleeping with the Past (1989), The One (1992), Songs from the West Coast (2001), The Diving Board (2013) and The Lockdown Sessions (2021). His catalogue of hit singles includes "Your Song", "Tiny Dancer", "Rocket Man", "Crocodile Rock", "Bennie and the Jets", "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", "I'm Still Standing", "Sacrifice", "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" and "Cold Heart".
He has also had success in musical films and theatre, composing music for The Lion King (1994), Aida (2000), and Billy Elliot the Musical (2005). John's final tour, Farewell Yellow Brick Road (2018–2023), became the highest-grossing tour ever at the time. His life and career were dramatised in the 2019 biographical film Rocketman.
John's awards include a Primetime Emmy Award, five Grammy Awards, two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award and the Kennedy Center Honor. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, and is a fellow of The Ivors Academy.
He was appointed Knight Bachelor for services to music and charity in 1998 and was appointed a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2020.[22]
Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elton_John#Philanthropy]
🧠Memory Mnemonic
Elton John – Top 6 Songs Memory Mnemonic – Crocodile DiSGRaCe
(Picture Elton John performing Crocodile Rock on The Muppet Show, as he did in that disgracefully great outfit!)
1. Crocodile Rock
2. Daniel
3. Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting
4. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
5. Rocket Man
6. Candle in the Wind
🔎 Five Fun Facts
1. Elton John was born with a musical gift and could play piano by ear at the age of three and began formal lessons soon after. His talent was so strong that he earned a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music at the age of just eleven. Amazingly, he was able to play a four-page Handel piece perfectly after hearing it just once, demonstrating an uncanny ability to learn and recall complex music.
2. Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, he adopted the name “Elton John” from two musicians he admired: Elton Dean a jazz musician, and Long John Baldry an English musician and actor. He wanted to create a new persona for his solo career and leave his unhappy childhood behind. And also, for a bit of fun, he added the middle name of Hercules, which was inspired by a horse on the British sitcom Steptoe and Son.
3. Elton John’s musical genius was augmented by another genius called Bernie Taupin. Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics to which Elton John would then compose the music. The two met by chance after answering the same music industry ad in 1967. They started their collaboration in the same year, and it has been one of the longest and most successful collaborations in music history.
4. Elton John really came into his own when he started to adopt and embrace flamboyant outfits. Some of the more notable outfits have included: the Louis XIV costume from his 50th birthday party, the Donald Duck costume from a 1980 concert, the Dodgers uniform worn at Dodger Stadium in 1975, the feathered outfit from his "Crocodile Rock" performance on The Muppets, which forms todays mnemonic, and a 1980s "State of Liberty" ensemble.
5. Elton John was once married in Australia! Not to an Australian though, but a German sound engineer named Renate Blauel. They met at Elton John’s record company and married on Valentine’s Day in 1984 in Sydney. While Elton John did announce he was bisexual in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 1976, he did not come out as gay until the early 1990s. They divorced in 1988 but remained friends, though Blauel sued Elton John over parts of his autobiography as well as the movie Rocketman in 2020, as they had made a legal agreement not to discuss their marriage publicly.
🎓 Three-Question Quiz
Q.1. What is Elton John’s real birth name?
Q.2. Which movie did Elton John win an Oscar for, for the song “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”?
Q.3. What is the name of Elton John’s biographical musical film released in 2019?
Bonus Q. Elton John famously rewrote and performed “Candle in the Wind” at Princess Diana’s funeral in what year?
Bonus Q. According to a 1976 Elton John hit, what seems to be the hardest word?
🧠Memory Mnemonic Recap
Elton John – Top 6 Songs Memory Mnemonic – Crocodile DiSGRaCe
(Picture Elton John performing Crocodile Rock on The Muppet Show, as he did in that disgracefully great outfit!)
1. Crocodile Rock
2. Daniel
3. Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting
4. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
5. Rocket Man
6. Candle in the Wind
🎓 Three-Question Quiz Answers
Q.1. What is Elton John’s real birth name?
A. Reginald Kenneth Dwight.
Q.2. Which movie did Elton John win an Oscar for, for the song “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”?
A. The Lion King
Q.3. What is the name of Elton John’s biographical musical film released in 2019?
A. Rocketman
Bonus Q. Elton John famously rewrote and performed “Candle in the Wind” at Princess Diana’s funeral in what year?
A. 1997
Bonus Q. According to a 1976 Elton John hit, what seems to be the hardest word?
A. Sorry, and I actually take umbrage to this. He obviously hasn’t heard of the town in Wales called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch!
🔤 Word of the Week
verisimilitude
[ver-uh-si-mil-i-tood, -tyood]
noun
the appearance or semblance of truth; genuineness; authenticity.
The play lacked verisimilitude.
something, as an assertion, having merely the appearance of truth.
Example
Elton John brought a remarkable verisimilitude to his performances, making every song feel vividly real and emotionally touching.
Extracted from: [https://www.dictionary.com/]
đź’ˇ Memory Tip
For our memory tip today, we will be talking about Alliterative Phrases. Alliterative phrase mnemonics use repeating initial sounds to make information easier to remember.
Because the words share the same starting letter or sound, the phrase becomes catchy and rhythmic, and thus far more memorable. This technique works well for lists, sequences, and facts. Alliteration helps the brain form stronger associations, helping you to retain the information with minimal effort.
Our example for an alliterative phrase is “Busy Bees Build Big Beehives.” See you next week.
👉 Free Memory Mnemonics at:
https://www.themnemonictreepodcast.com
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https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-mnemonic-tree-podcast/id1591795132
🎧 Listen on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/3T0LdIJ9PBQMXM3cdKd42Q?si=fqmaN2TNS8qqc7jOEVa-Cw
đź”— References
https://www.history.co.uk/shows/evel-knievel-live/articles/evel-knievels-5-greatests-stunts
https://upjoke.com/elton-john-jokes
https://kids.kiddle.co/Elton_John
indieisnotagenre.com/10-facts-you-didnt-know-about-elton-john/
https://larrylambert269.medium.com/facts-about-elton-john-639712739698