Elton John is without doubt one of the biggest names in music, with a career that spans five decades, an army of hit singles and albums, and happily rubs shoulders with royalty. You'd be pushed to find anyone who didn't know who he was, and his unusual name has something to do with that as well. There are artists who have been around for a comparable amount of time, but whose names just begin to fade, see Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam for example, but John's short, sharp and uncommon name gets the point across very quickly and without fuss. His reputation is such that you just need to mention his name and you're aware of countless songs, performances or even scandalous behaviour in the paparazzi, and that's in thanks to a name which has almost become a genre in itself. But then you have his real name, Reginald Kenneth Dwight. There's barely a memorable or show business appropriate name amongst the three given. If anything, you could argue that Reg's actual name would be more fitting of a West Indian cricket player, not a world renowned singer songwriter. Had Elton John stuck with his original name, it's not hard to picture him struggling to get quite so much immediate attention, perhaps even having to settle with a career highlight of a few appearances on the jazz and folk stages at Glastonbury every year. It seems otherworldly to even think of the name "Reg Dwight" up in lights, performing to hundreds of thousands of screaming fans across the world.
