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Elton John · S1 E5
Bluesology
A teenage backing band, Long John Baldry, and Reg Dwight learning what it means to perform in smoky London clubs
A fifteen-year-old kid hauls a keyboard into a pub backroom in Pinner and joins a band called Bluesology. Within three years, he will be backing Patti LaBelle and playing six nights a week across England.
Are You Ready for Love, originally recorded in 1977 with the Spinners and re-released to hit number one in 2003. The Philly soul groove traces directly back to the American R&B acts Reg backed during his Bluesology years.
Day Job, Night Life
By day, Reg works as a tea boy and packer at Mills Music, a Tin Pan Alley publishing house. By night, he plays R&B covers with Bluesology in pubs and small clubs across southeast England. The double life teaches him something the Academy never could: how to read a room.
Bluesology by the Numbers
“We ended up backing some incredible American artists on their British tours. I was playing behind people I'd only ever heard on my mum's records.”
— Elton John
TAP TO REVEAL: Where did the name 'Elton John' actually come from?
Which towering blues singer fronted Bluesology and inspired half the name 'Elton John'?
Skyline Pigeon
Originally released in 1968. One of the very first Elton John recordings, written while he was still trapped in the Bluesology grind. The lyrics about wanting to fly free feel like a diary entry from a young man who knows he has outgrown his band.
By 1967, Reg knows Bluesology is a dead end. He answers a small ad in the New Musical Express that will change the rest of his life.
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