Elton was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight

The young Reginald Dwight started playing the piano at the age of 3, and at 4, his mother was astonished to hear him picking out Winifred Atwell’s “The Skater’s Waltz” by ear. Soon he was performing at parties and family gatherings. He began taking piano lessons at the age of 7.

At 11, he won a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. One of his instructors reports when he entered the Academy, she played a four-page piece by Handel, which he promptly played back like a “gramophone record.”