Credit: Raph Pour-Hashemi

10 songs that changed Elton John’s life forever

Mon 21 April 2025 15:30, UK

For a star as transcendental as Elton John, many artists who have since come to the spotlight, years after his first foray, credit him as a guiding inspiration. It’s a status to swell the ego sure, but it’s something that John has become known for indulging in, as he likes to act the mentor to those who are set to emulate his stratospheric successes within today’s industry.

While John himself may not have had the luxury of a physically present guiding force in his younger days, it’s clear that there’s a whole range of artists from the 1950s onwards whose songs gave his life due course. Previously expanding on this for Radio 2, he began by citing ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ by Elvis Presley as a most inspiring tune. He said, “This record changed my life and it changed the face of music. [It] propelled me into my love of rock and roll. It was like ‘Wow, what’s this?’ Like something from Mars… It changed the world, socially and musically.”

Alongside Presley from that era, he then paired Jerry Lee Lewis’s ‘Great Balls of Fire’ and Little Richard’s ‘Lucille’ together, enthusing about the latter saying, “That voice! That look! He was the first black artist that I’d seen doing rock and roll, and he was electrifying. I loved him so much.”

Moving into the swinging ‘60s, and a new rock sensation, he next picked The Beatles’ ‘We Can Work it Out’. With regards to the song, he commented: “The Beatles revolutionised the way things were recorded. They experimented and they wrote fantastic songs. ‘We Can Work It Out’ is such a wonderful song, and Stevie Wonder did an amazing version of it.”

Leading the ‘60s charge further on the list were Four Tops with ‘Reach Out (I’ll be There)’— John’s Motown favourites—The Band with ‘The Weight’, and finally, Aretha Franklin with ‘Think’. Of Franklin’s song, John said: “I chose this track because it just takes off; her piano playing, the whole thing. In those days, you did two-three takes. This was live, there was no overdubbing. And boy, if you don’t get excited by this kind of music then I fear for you.”

Veering into the next decade, The Beatles’ legacy still stood strong throughout world, and John struck up a friendship with John Lennon. For this reason, he picked their duet ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’ from 1974 as another seminal force, recalling: “I was so nervous playing on the track, but it went really well. I had to sing as well, which is difficult because everyone has their own personal phrasing. When he’s already done the track, you have to get it right. But it was such a great, fun session. Everything with John was fun. And Jimmy Iovine was the engineer. He did a few things afterwards!”

For his final double bill of choices, the ‘Rocketman’ singled out ‘A Song For You’ by Leon Russel and Friends—“my piano-playing idol”—and ‘Don’t Give Up’ by Peter Gabriel featuring Kate Bush. Asked about the pair, John said: “Peter Gabriel is just the most amazing artist. Kate Bush ditto. The two of them together was like a double whammy, and the song is so beautiful. This track, it still reminds me of the dark days and the determination to not give up.”

Whirling through the years, evidently, if John were to list every single one of his inspirations, it would be never-ending. Boiling that down to just ten is difficult, but as his choices demonstrate, they are utterly quintessential for a revelatory glimpse into his life and artistic process.