Elton At Sixty

Would you believe Elton John turns sixty tomorrow? And he's celebrating in big style, performing a concert at New York's Madison Square Garden, one of his favorite venues. Elton is hardly the wild rocker he was back when Nixon was president, but his experience as a musician and a performer over the past several decades have made him one of the most versatile and esteemed performers in rock. As a result, he's lasted much better than some of his peers from the seventies, though we should also give his lyricist Bernie Taupin credit for that as well. In fact, some would say ( and have said) that as Elvis was to the fifties, and as the Beatles were to the sixties, Elton John was to the seventies - the decade's greatest star.

Here's something else to consider. Elvis had become a washed-up crooner by the time he died in 1977. The Beatles's partnership ended when the sixties did. Elton John is, as he and Bernie would put it, still standing.