from 1976 to 1987 and from 1997 to 2002, and is an honorary life president of the club. Since its inception, the foundation has raised over £300 million. After losing two friends to AIDS ( Ryan White and Freddie Mercury) in the span of a year, John established the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992, and a year later he began hosting his annual Foundation Academy Awards Party, which has since become one of the biggest high-profile Oscar parties in the Hollywood film industry.
John has been involved in the fight against AIDS since the late 1980s. While not appearing in his own biopic, John has made cameos in other films and television shows. His music career was dramatised in the 2019 biopic Rocketman. In 2018, John began his ongoing farewell tour. John has also had success in musical films and theatre, composing music for The Lion King and its stage adaptation, Aida and Billy Elliot the Musical. In recent years, he has collaborated with several younger artists like Ed Sheeran and Dua Lipa. John began collaborating with other musicians in the 1970s and early 1980s, including John Lennon, Kiki Dee and George Michael. His most commercially successful period, 1970–1976, included Honky Château (1972), Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player (1973), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973) and his first Greatest Hits compilation - the latter two among the official best-selling albums worldwide. In 1970, his first hit single, " Your Song", from his second album, Elton John, became his first top ten in both the UK and the US. In 1969, John's debut album, Empty Sky, was released. For two years, they wrote songs for other artists, and John worked as a session musician for artists including the Hollies and the Scaffold. He met his longtime musical partner Taupin in 1967, after they both answered an advert for songwriters. Raised in the Pinner area of Greater London, John learned to play piano at an early age, and by 1962 had formed Bluesology, an R&B band with whom he played until 1967. According to Billboard in 2019, John is the top solo artist in US chart history (third overall), and the top Adult Contemporary artist of all time. His tribute single " Candle in the Wind 1997", rewritten in dedication to Diana, Princess of Wales, sold over 33 million copies worldwide and is the best-selling chart single of all time.
He has more than fifty Top 40 hits in the UK Singles Chart and US Billboard Hot 100, including nine number ones in the UK and nine in the US, as well as seven consecutive number-one albums in the US. Collaborating with lyricist Bernie Taupin since 1967 on more than 30 albums, John has sold over 300 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Sir Elton Hercules John CH CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight 25 March 1947) is an English singer, pianist and composer.