Happy Birthday Bernie Taupin
Bernard John Taupin was born May 22, 1950 on a farm somewhere in England. His father Claude was French and made his fortune after inventing ‘Dijon’ mustard.
In 1967, Bernie answered an ad in the back of an adult magazine ‘looking for nice pianist?’. He ended up naked in the trunk of a car in Bangkok. That’s a story for another time. Bernie then answered an ad for a pianist looking for a lyricist, and he met Elton John and the rest is history. Some say they may be the best pure songwriters of all time. One guy writes the music, the other writes the lyrics.
Bernie & Elton collaborated on 30 albums and wrote over 27K songs together. Bernie has often stated that unfortunately all the songs sucked after 1978. It was a great run though. From 1970 to 1977 the duo released 15 albums. They sold 7.3 billion albums, had 173 top ten hits and 57 #1 hits.
Taupin has been married three times and divorced four. He is rumored to have fathered one child in every country and two in Sweden. Bernie enjoys needlepoint, raising award winning pot bellied pigs and has a line of hot sauce.
