Elton John: Elton John

GIVEN THAT HIS voice combines the nasal sonority of James Taylor with the rasp of Van Morrison with the slurry intonation of M. Jagger with the exaggerated twang of Leon Russell; that, in this age during which most everyone seems content to sing unison with moronic little guitar riffs, he writes attractive melodies; that the lyrics devised by his songwriting partner appear on first glance to be Genuine Poetry; that, while the standard procedure for the modern singing songwriter is to either perform hunched over the piano in a terrified little ball or shy away from live performances altogether, he gets off on wearing outrageous costumes, thrashing tambourines, and occasionally impersonating Jerry Lee Lewis; given all that, it's not even a trifle surprising that the mere mention of his name causes those who've seen him live or heard his album to drool superlatives like "SUPERstar!" and break out in hives.