During the first months of 1975, Elton John was not a happy bunny. Living in a rented villa on Tower Grove Drive in the Westside Los Angeles neighborhood of Benedict Canyon, he threw wild, narcotic parties, but late nights were starting to take their toll. To make matters worse, the increasingly paranoid star was haunted by the specter of the Manson murders, which had taken place six years earlier a short drive away on Cielo Drive.
“I woke up one morning to find a girl sitting at the end of my bed, staring at me,” John wrote in his 2019 autobiography, Me. “I couldn’t get up because I never wore anything when I slept. All I could do was sit there yelling at her to get out. She didn’t say anything back, she just kept looking, which was somehow worse than if she had spoken.”
The uninvited guest was eventually fired by Elton’s housekeeper, but the incident did not help his mood, and the sadness was evident when he agreed to guest on the first episode of Dearthe eponymous program which announced the return to television of the former Sonny & Cher star. Grumpy on set, it took Elton eight takes to complete his cover of the Beatles classic Lucy in the sky with diamonds, his mood was not improved even by the spectacular tinfoil wizard hat he had chosen to wear.
Things improved dramatically when Cher joined him on piano for a duet version of Elton. Bennie and the jets. The pair’s vocals are a perfect match, and for anyone who’s usually baffled by Elton’s marble-choked diction, it’s a revelation to hear Cher sing the lines with such clarity. The two have fun, Elton growls at the camera, and both punctuate the performance with shouts and delighted asides.
The finale of the show accelerates the flamboyance to spectacular new heights. Elton and Cher are joined by fellow gay icon Bette Midler for a medley featuring James Taylor and Carly Simon’s mockingbirdCreedence Clearwater Revival’s mary proudMarvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell There’s no mountain high enough – featuring a spoken word cameo by comedian Flip Wilson – and the Jackson 5 Never being able to say goodbye.
That’s crazy. Thousands of balloons fill the set. The three musicians are a vision in the purest white and shimmering silver. Elton sports a giant top hat and an expansive necklace made entirely of Christmas tree balls. And his initial lack of enthusiasm seems to have been entirely overcome.
Perhaps the show’s greatest legacy is that it introduced Elton to Cher’s costume designer, Bob Mackie. Mackie had created the iconic sequin dress that Marilyn Monroe wore when serenading President John F. Kennedy on his fortieth birthday at Madison Square Garden in 1962, and had designed outfits for Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Diana Ross and Tina Turner.
Mackie then reminisced about some of John’s most unforgettable fashion triumphs: the sparkling Los Angeles Dodgers uniform worn at the famed Dodger Stadium show a few months later; Donald Duck’s majestic costumed worm in New York’s Central Park in 1980; the legendary “Amadeus” ensemble worn on the Leather Jackets world tour in 1986. And when Elton played his last US Farewell yellow brick road show at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles in late 2022, Mackie was called upon to recreate Elton’s original baseball costume.
“I didn’t expect this,” Mackie said vogue. “I was creating a lot of different things for him at the time, and it was just another quick gag. ‘Elton.’
| Hits.News TV Shows News | Click here |
Follow and Subscribe to Our YouTube, Instagram and Twitter – Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.
News & Image Credit – Click Here
