This past Sunday, March 25, musical legend Elton John celebrated his 60th birthday. To mark this milestone, John performed a very special concert at a venue that he holds near and dear to his heart, New York’s Madison Square Garden.
As John told the people in attendance, he had many memorable experiences on “The Garden’s” stage, ranging from the emotional 9/11 tribute concert to a special performance with John Lennon. To mark this event, John always performs his song “Empty Garden,” a tribute to the late Beatle.
Coincidentally, John had already performed 59 sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden prior to his 60th birthday. Therefore, this special birthday concert would also mark his 60th sold-out show at the famed arena.
According to John, he was asked what he wanted to do for his birthday, he said that he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else other than Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Elton John is by no means a strange name to fans of pop/rock music. The Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall Of Fame inductee, known for his flashy costumes and oversized glasses, climbed the music charts numerous times throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
In recent years, John has written hugely successful soundtracks for the cinema and stage (most notably Disney’s “The Lion King”) with famed lyricist Tim Rice.
At 8 o’clock on the night of March 25, former President Bill Clinton took the stage to wish John a happy birthday and applaud the work of his AIDS foundation.
Then, finally, the man everyone had been waiting to see took the stage and began with a song off of his 1970 self-titled debut album that was appropriately titled “60 Years On.”
At one point towards the middle of the show, comedians Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams joined John’s long-time lyricist, Bernie Taupin, to offer their birthday wishes and lead the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday.”
This was followed by a gigantic cloud of confetti that fell onto the stage and the first rows of the audience. To commemorate this event, a banner reading “JOHN 60” was raised.
Throughout the course of the night John and his back-up band flew through a plethora of hits and obscurities that covered every part of John’s nearly 40-year career. John’s current band actually contains two members of his original three-piece band, Nigel Olsson and Davey Johnstone, on drums and guitar, respectively.
John was also joined by a youth choir from Brooklyn, that added to the energy of classic hits like “Levon” and “Take Me to the Pilot.”
Among the lesser known songs performed were “Hercules” (from the 1972 release “Honky Chateau”), “Holiday Inn” (from the 1970 release “Madman Across The Water”), “Roy Rodgers” (from the famed 1973 album “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”) and “Better Off Dead” (from 1976 “Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy”)
As the concert’s initial set neared a close, the entire arena danced and sung along to the rockin’ classics, “The Bitch Is Back,” “Crocodile Rock,” and “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting.”
Of course, the show was not without an encore, which featured the entire eleven-minute anthem “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” and John’s signature ballad “Your Song,” which he dedicated to the audience of loyal fans. Once the concert, which was streamed online and recorded for television, came to an end, it was obvious that everyone, especially Elton John, himself, had enjoyed themselves immensely and experienced a historical event in the history of popular music.
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