Call it a farewell delayed.
Elton John's North Little Rock stop on his "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour was originally set for July 3, 2020. Of course, the first wave of the pandemic caused the trek to be scrapped.
And even though the omicron variant of the virus continues to spread, John is back on the road and bringing his vast catalog of hits and fabulous collection of sunglasses to Simmons Bank Arena on Saturday for a career-spanning, victory-lap show that, as of our Wednesday deadline, had only a few platinum-level tickets remaining.
John, born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on March 25, 1947, has been an overwhelmingly popular musician for most of his 74 years. He's the kind of legacy artist whose catalog attracts classic rockers, Gen Xers who grew up on '80s Top 40 pop, fans of his ballads and those who love him as a gay icon and activist.
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Just take a look at these titles, all pretty much standards from the past 50-plus years: "Your Song," "Bennie and the Jets,"
"Crocodile Rock," "Daniel," "Rocket Man," "Sad Songs," "Tiny Dancer," "The Bitch Is Back," "Philadelphia Freedom," "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," "Don't Go Breaking My Heart."
And that's just scratching the surface. Seriously, it must be a chore whittling down his set lists every night.
Elton John has sold more than 300 million records worldwide. (Rocket Entertainment/Ben Gibson) If you're into such things, his sales statistics are staggering.
According to eltonjohn.com, he is "the most successful solo male in the history of the American charts and the third most successful artist overall, behind only Madonna and the Beatles."
He's had 67 songs in the Hot 100 between 1970 and 2000, including nine that hit No. 1 and 27 in the Top 10 and has sold more than 300 million records worldwide.
Between 1972 and 1975, he had seven No. 1 albums. "Candle in the Wind 1997," a tribute to Princess Diana and a reworking of the song that first appeared on the 1973 album "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," has sold more than 33 million copies and is the biggest selling single in pop chart history.
"Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)," his 2021 single with Dua Lipa that appears on his "Lockdown Sessions" album, hit No. 2 on the charts in the United Kingdom, making him the first musician to have a Top 10 track in six different decades.
He has won five Grammy awards and two Oscars, the first with Tim Rice for "The Lion King" in 1994 and another with longtime musical partner Bernie Taupin for "I'm Gonna Love Me Again" from the 2019 bio-pic "Rocketman."
And call him Sir Elton, because in 1998 be became the first openly gay musician to be knighted by Queen Elizabeth in recognition not only of his career in music but for his charitable works in the fight against AIDS.
The current leg of the “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour kicked off Jan. 19 with a sold-out show at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. (Rocket Entertainment/Ben Gibson) Growing up, John was a precocious pianist, able to play "The Skater's Waltz" by ear at age 3. By the time he was 11, he was awarded a scholarship as a Junior Exhibitor at the Royal Academy of Music.
Like a lot of British musicians, he was enamored of American blues and R&B. He formed his first band, Bluesology, in 1962 and played with it for five years. He worked as a session musician and teamed up with lyricist Taupin. It would become one of the most fruitful partnerships in pop music and lead to John's biggest hits, with John building songs around Taupin's words.
But success didn't come quickly. John's 1969 debut, "Empty Sky," failed to find an audience. His self-titled second album also didn't fare well commercially; he released his third, "Tumbleweed Connection," in 1970.
Somewhere along the line, DJs started playing the ballad "Your Song," the B-side to "Take Me to the Pilot," a single from the second album. "Your Song" became John's first hit; "Tumbleweed Connection" got positive reviews, reaching No. 5 in the U.S., and John's career began its upward trajectory.
He had developed a raucous stage presence behind his piano that would evolve into campy extravagance, rolling together Liberace, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles and his own tendency for excess into a rock 'n' roll spectacle.
Way back in 2018, when this farewell tour first began, journalist Bill Wyman wrote about John's lasting inscrutability, even though he has been in the public eye most of his life. Wyman also marveled at John's musicianship. "He is an amazing pianist; his body of work is a seemingly unending flow of fairly complex, full-bodied playing, with counter-melodies cascading through almost every song."
The current leg of the "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour kicked off Jan. 19 with a sold-out show at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. The tour is scheduled to hit North American arenas through April before heading to Europe. John will return to the United States in July for a series of stadium shows, ending with back-to-back concerts Nov. 19-20 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, a nod to his legendary 1975 show at the venue.
Elton John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road”
- When: 8 p.m. Saturday
- Where: Simmons Bank Arena, 1 Simmons Bank Arena Drive, North Little Rock
- Admission: Varies if any tickets remain
- (501) 975-9000, simmonsbankarena.com
- (Arena no longer takes cash for merchandise, concessions.)