50 Years Ago Today: The New York Times Calls Elton John ‘Wallpaper Music’

A few days before Elton John kicked off his record-setting, seven-night stand at Madison Square Garden in August 1976, he told New York Times writer Henry Edwards that he was ready to ready slightly ease up on the bombastic elements of his live show. “The last time I played New York, I made an entrance perched on the shoulders of Mr. Universe,” he said. “My sense of the ridiculousness had gone about as far as it could go. That’s why I’ve decided not to look like Mae West on this tour. Still, the show will be humorous, have its tongue in its cheek, and be in thoroughly bad taste.”

When the residency began on Aug. 10, Elton kept to his word. He didn’t come out on Mr. Universe’s shoulders, and he wasn’t dressed like Mae West or any starlets from the Golden Age of Hollywood. He instead emerged from the wings alongside his nine-piece band in an elaborate Statue of Liberty costume, complete with a silver sequined cape. But he soon shedded all that in favor of “a more restrained outfit,” to quote the New York Daily News , that included a “jacket trimmed in gold sequins with a portrait of Carmen Miranda on the back and a sequined banana around his neck.”

That was a far cry from the bare stage he played at the 500-seat Troubadour during his U.S. debut just six years earlier, where he was joined only by drummer Nigel Olsson and bassist Dee Murray. But during that relatively brief window of time, he’d enjoyed an incredible, uninterrupted run of hits with few precedents in music history outside of the Beatles.

That’s why he was able to travel the world on a customized private jet known as the Starship, spend his downtime hobnobbing with Elizabeth Taylor and John Lennon, and book seven nights at MSG, breaking the record that the Rolling Stones set when they played six the previous year. (It’s never been proven that Elton booked one more just to top them, but it seems entirely possible.) Editor’s picks The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century

It’s difficult to pinpoint the precise moment that Elton-mania peaked, but August 1976 is a prime candidate considering the fact that “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” was Number One the entire month, and it coincided with the MSG run.

New York Daily News writer Michael Pousner captured the madness in an Aug. 5, 1976, article that was entirely about his efforts to land an interview with Elton. “Sorry, maybe he’ll talk to you when he releases his next album,” he was initially told by a publicist. “Might want some publicity then. By the way, we have another artist, Cliff Richard, who could use some publicity now. Want to talk to him?”

Pousner had no interest in Cliff Richard, and wound up backstage at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, without any commitment for an actual interview. But he did find himself just inches away from the Jackson Five. “Elton,” Pousner heard an “agent-type” say. “You wouldn’t mind if Michael Jackson came onstage for a moment, would you?” Michael himself witnessed this entire exchange up close as he “eyed Elton anxiously,” and was surely crushed by the response.