Elton John celebrates his 60th Birthday.

One look at the guest list of the 'piano mans' birthday bash probably explains why, to anybody under the age of say forty, the former Reg Dwight is best known for tantrums and tiaras than Daniel and Love Lies Bleeding.

Cast your mind back thirty two summers to Wembley Stadium. It's 1975 and Elton John is top of the bill supported by The Eagles, The Beach Boys and Chaka Khan - that is how big he was back then. The following summer he would top the British charts with Kiki Dee and 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart' but shortly after that something happened.

In the years 1972-1976 Elton John was huge, and I don't mean physically(!). Along with David Bowie he was responsible for countering the American invasion of the early seventies that had seen David Cassidy, Donny Osmond and The Jackson Five topping the pop charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Elton and Bowie went to the states and played the vast Enormodomes and indoor arenas. It's no exaggeration to say that whilst Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane are remembered as the pivotal albums in Bowie's career between 1971 and late 1972, Elton John's three albums of the same period: Honky Chateau, Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road were equally important in the history of pop music. These three albums spawned the classic singles/songs: Daniel, Your Song, Crocodile Rock, Candle in the Wind, Saturday Night's All Right For Fighting as well as Benny and The Jets and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

It seems hard to imagine now but when Crocodile Rock made the U.S Charts people in the U.K were genuinely excited. Post Beatles the only British artists who had made any impact in the States were the Stones and Led Zeppelin, both with their music and their offstage excesses but here was a piano player who wore glasses with 'Pow' written across them whilst wearing a gold spangly suit singing well crafted pop songs.

In 1976 after topping the charts with Kiki Dee he decided to retire from playing live, a decision he would reverse nearly twenty years later, and concentrate on recording. It was a move that coincided with his writing partner Bernie Taupin's decision to work with other artists. The impact of his chart success was immediate, having had 11 top ten albums between 1970 and 1976, he had only four in the next 12 years.

He became more famous more for his lifestyle than his music, the wedding, the football club and then the revelation that he fancied Arthur more than Martha.

I suspect that he is now more famous for being famous than for his music, his decision to ruin a decent pop song by reinventing it as an anthem for a dead deluded blonde aside, but thirty odd years ago in the days before punk he was a genuine star and we should all be so talented that we can make that claim.