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Lot Essay
ELTON JOHN’S TOURING STEINWAY, USED DURING THE 1970S AND 1980S
This Steinway 9-foot Concert Grand was one of Sir Elton John’s touring pianos, and would have accompanied the legendary singer-songwriter and ‘EGOT’ (one of only 22 people to be awarded an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony), during some of the most memorable and significant concerts of his career, from circa 1973⁄4 until 1988. Now with a high-gloss black lacquer, it bears the traces of having had several different leg arrangements and finishes during this period, including a bright white lacquer and trompe l’oeil woodgrain decoration; and it possibly also at one point sported a sparkly studded cover, was wrapped in silver foil, and was painted in the red, yellow and blue livery of Watford F.C. Whilst there are a number of distinctive physical features which correlate with the appearance of the piano Elton played at some of his most iconic shows, unfortunately, due to the lack of surviving documentation such as tour carnets from this period which include specific mention of this piano’s serial number, it is not possible to definitively identify specific concerts at which the piano was played.
Steinway’s records confirm that this Model D Concert Grand, with serial number 426549 and black satin ‘brushed’ finish, was completed on 9 June 1972 in New York, and subsequently placed on loan as Concert D 'CD-118’, rather than being commercially hired out. It was subsequently sold to Elton John in Beverly Hills, California, on 15 August 1975. Whilst documentary evidence regarding the loan has not surfaced, it is fair to assume that the loan period was to a single client who might have gone on to purchase it; and therefore that Elton John would have tried the piano first extensively – and possibly even had it modified to his requirements – prior to purchasing it. Elton himself relayed when speaking to Bob Doerschuk for Contemporary Keyboard magazine in February 1981: when you buy a Steinway I think you have to live with it a couple of years to let it settle down. I knew it was a great piano to start with, but it's a question of easing into them when they're brand new.
Definitively identifying the piano as Elton’s touring instrument during the potential loan period of 1973 and 1974 is challenging – not least because very often he is pictured at a piano dressed in its own rhinestone-studded sparkly coat, to match his flamboyant stage outfits. However, there are several photographs which indicate it could be the present Steinway, with its distinctive block extending to rounded supporting brackets to the top of the legs, including at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on 7 September 1973, where, dressed in a feathered outfit Elton appears to levitate above the piano.
In 1974, Elton John stood at the apex of a meteoric rise – an artist whose virtuosity and theatricality had already reshaped the contours of popular music. It marked a crystallisation of his stardom, defined not only by commercial success but by his remarkable creative output, touring range, and historic collaborations. Across almost seventy performances on stages from Tokyo to Philadelphia, 1974 remains one of the most luminous periods in Elton John’s artistic trajectory.
Amongst Elton John’s most celebrated concerts of that year was his Thanksgiving show at Madison Square Gardens on 28 November 1974, where he was joined on stage by John Lennon for what would be Lennon’s last public performance. Lennon stated in a 1980 interview with David Sheff that he half-heartedly promised that if 'Whatever Gets You Thru the Night' became No. 1, which I had no reason to expect, I'd do Madison Square Garden with him [Elton]. So one day Elton called and said, 'Remember when you promised...' ... After I walked on [stage] they were all screaming and shouting. It was like Beatlemania. I was thinking 'What is this?' 'cause I hadn't heard it since the Beatles. In addition to ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’, together Elton and John Lennon performed renditions of Beatles classics ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’ and ‘I Saw Her Standing There’. The recorded duet performance of ‘Lucy’ hit #1 in the charts on 4 January 1975. The piano Elton used during this performance was sheathed in the aforementioned rhinestone-studded cover.
Photographs of other US-based concerts from 1974 show a similar piano and whilst it is logical to assume that the same instrument was used for some venues in North America, some were borrowed, as Elton himself reported when speaking to Doerschuk: I played on the worst pianos in the world back in the early days, from ’70 to ’74. We used to have a separate piano every gig. It was potluck. This was the case, perhaps unsurprisingly considering the logistics, in Hawaii. When elaborating on his preference for Steinways, Elton explained that some places just don't have Steinways. For example, in Hawaii, I think you can only get a Baldwin or a Yamaha. When we played there the first time [in October 1974] we had to borrow a piano from some doctor and physically take it out of his house.
Elton John certainly had access to other pianos during this period, including a Steinway in his Windsor home, at which he was famously photographed by Terry O’Neill for the album cover of his 1974 Greatest Hits album. Photographs of the European dates played in 1974 show a Hamburg Steinway in use, and a slightly different model features on the cover of his 1976 studio album Here and There, featuring recessed panels to the top of the legs.
Elton’s recorded purchase of this Steinway in August 1975 at his Beverly Hills home preceded the release in October of his album Rock The Westies, and his two sell-out shows at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, on 25 and 26 October 1975, where he played to 100,000 people across both nights – the largest ever concerts by a solo artist at the time. For both nights he played a Steinway Model D wrapped in reflective silver foil, whilst dressed in a rhinestone-studded baseball outfit in tribute to the historic venue. Speaking to Doerschuk in 1981 about his Steinway, he reported that they're not the sort of thing you go around buying. As I say, I've had my old Steinway for five or six years. This was the one on the Dodger Stadium tour [1975] that looked like the Concorde, but that was just the stuff built around it. It's basically a black Steinway, although it's white now; I just had it lacquered.
During 1977, in a lull in touring, Elton lent a Steinway – possibly this piano – to Queen, with whom he shared a manager in John Reid at the time. Elton’s piano was used by Freddie Mercury in 1977 for three months of their US tour to promote A Day At The Races from January, and then onwards for the UK and European leg that summer. Photographs show the presence of the same panel design to the top of the leg, as well as parallel rails to the long side (traces of which can be seen on the present piano), which were visible to the audience thanks to Queen’s particular stage set-up. Correspondence from Peter Hince, Queen’s road manager at the time recalls the loan and states how helpful it was to have the same instrument every night fitted with Helpinstill pickups, which did not have to be moved or repositioned each time.
During 1979 Elton John undertook a major world tour to support his 1978 album A Single Man, supported by percussionist Ray Cooper. The tour included eight concerts in the Soviet Union – the first time a Western artist had performed in the USSR – for which he played a Hamburg Steinway. For the dates outside of the USSR he played a Model D Steinway which was at this point painted red, yellow and black in homage to his beloved Watford F.C. That piano had different bolt-on legs, which could be more swiftly attached and detached every time the piano was moved on and off stage, and heavy locking castors more suited to touring use.
Into 1980 and through to 1988 Elton John played Steinways exclusively – including at Live Aid in 1985, where Elton’s white piano was one of two used on stage through the day, including for the finale with Paul McCartney singing ‘Let It Be’ to an estimated audience of a billion people worldwide. Throughout this period there were variations to leg design and color and it is impossible to say which performances this piano might have been used for. If we are to take at face value the 1981 interview with Contemporary Keyboard, it would appear that Elton John had a principle touring piano during the period 1975-1980, one which included at least two color and leg changes from the original black. However, this does not account for backups and substitutions, which would have inevitably been a requirement for such a busy touring musician at the height of his fame.
This piano clearly shows evidence of having been played and toured extensively – and bears the modified action, with light-touch keys and lacquered hammers, which was so important to Elton John, as he reported to Doerschuk: I think that when you first sit down at a piano, within a minute you can tell whether you're going to like it because of the tone quality, but the action is really even more important to me. The piano I have now has been doctored so much that the action is ridiculous; it's just like an electric piano… It's real fast. The action on it now is absolutely incredible. Following inspection of the piano in 2021, Steinway reported that the action regulation was customized and set up to Elton John's preference in the 1970's which included re-weighting the keys to provide a very light and responsive touch.
In addition, the underside of the lid features additional bracing, intended to support additional weight – and designed to be danced upon. The long side bears traces of side rails which would have been essential to quickly and easily move it on and off stage and between venues. The underside of the carcase shows traces of different leg arrangements, which Steinway confirmed would be fairly standard for Concert Grands, either when a piano was being refinished (as this so often was) and/or if there was a change in castors required – with large locking castors being more suited to touring and stage use. And there are the aforementioned multiple decorative schemes, with the piano evidently having needed to be refinished following the rigours of touring. Irrespective of its particular concert appearances, this piano was undoubtedly a well-travelled and well-used instrument, only retired when Elton John decided to move away from Steinways in 1988. For a time it resided at the home of John Reid, when it was decorated in a simulated woodgrain pattern. Following it being included in Reid’s Christie’s sale in 1998, Sir Elton John reacquired the piano and once again lacquered it black to the present high-gloss finish.
REFERENCE
B. Doerschuk, ‘Elton John’, Contemporary Keyboard, February 1981, pp. 32-55.
Christie’s would like to thank Stephen Goodman and Steinway & Sons for their assistance in cataloguing this lot.
This Steinway 9-foot Concert Grand was one of Sir Elton John’s touring pianos, and would have accompanied the legendary singer-songwriter and ‘EGOT’ (one of only 22 people to be awarded an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony), during some of the most memorable and significant concerts of his career, from circa 1973⁄4 until 1988. Now with a high-gloss black lacquer, it bears the traces of having had several different leg arrangements and finishes during this period, including a bright white lacquer and trompe l’oeil woodgrain decoration; and it possibly also at one point sported a sparkly studded cover, was wrapped in silver foil, and was painted in the red, yellow and blue livery of Watford F.C. Whilst there are a number of distinctive physical features which correlate with the appearance of the piano Elton played at some of his most iconic shows, unfortunately, due to the lack of surviving documentation such as tour carnets from this period which include specific mention of this piano’s serial number, it is not possible to definitively identify specific concerts at which the piano was played.
Steinway’s records confirm that this Model D Concert Grand, with serial number 426549 and black satin ‘brushed’ finish, was completed on 9 June 1972 in New York, and subsequently placed on loan as Concert D 'CD-118’, rather than being commercially hired out. It was subsequently sold to Elton John in Beverly Hills, California, on 15 August 1975. Whilst documentary evidence regarding the loan has not surfaced, it is fair to assume that the loan period was to a single client who might have gone on to purchase it; and therefore that Elton John would have tried the piano first extensively – and possibly even had it modified to his requirements – prior to purchasing it. Elton himself relayed when speaking to Bob Doerschuk for Contemporary Keyboard magazine in February 1981: when you buy a Steinway I think you have to live with it a couple of years to let it settle down. I knew it was a great piano to start with, but it's a question of easing into them when they're brand new.
Definitively identifying the piano as Elton’s touring instrument during the potential loan period of 1973 and 1974 is challenging – not least because very often he is pictured at a piano dressed in its own rhinestone-studded sparkly coat, to match his flamboyant stage outfits. However, there are several photographs which indicate it could be the present Steinway, with its distinctive block extending to rounded supporting brackets to the top of the legs, including at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on 7 September 1973, where, dressed in a feathered outfit Elton appears to levitate above the piano.
In 1974, Elton John stood at the apex of a meteoric rise – an artist whose virtuosity and theatricality had already reshaped the contours of popular music. It marked a crystallisation of his stardom, defined not only by commercial success but by his remarkable creative output, touring range, and historic collaborations. Across almost seventy performances on stages from Tokyo to Philadelphia, 1974 remains one of the most luminous periods in Elton John’s artistic trajectory.
Amongst Elton John’s most celebrated concerts of that year was his Thanksgiving show at Madison Square Gardens on 28 November 1974, where he was joined on stage by John Lennon for what would be Lennon’s last public performance. Lennon stated in a 1980 interview with David Sheff that he half-heartedly promised that if 'Whatever Gets You Thru the Night' became No. 1, which I had no reason to expect, I'd do Madison Square Garden with him [Elton]. So one day Elton called and said, 'Remember when you promised...' ... After I walked on [stage] they were all screaming and shouting. It was like Beatlemania. I was thinking 'What is this?' 'cause I hadn't heard it since the Beatles. In addition to ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’, together Elton and John Lennon performed renditions of Beatles classics ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’ and ‘I Saw Her Standing There’. The recorded duet performance of ‘Lucy’ hit #1 in the charts on 4 January 1975. The piano Elton used during this performance was sheathed in the aforementioned rhinestone-studded cover.
Photographs of other US-based concerts from 1974 show a similar piano and whilst it is logical to assume that the same instrument was used for some venues in North America, some were borrowed, as Elton himself reported when speaking to Doerschuk: I played on the worst pianos in the world back in the early days, from ’70 to ’74. We used to have a separate piano every gig. It was potluck. This was the case, perhaps unsurprisingly considering the logistics, in Hawaii. When elaborating on his preference for Steinways, Elton explained that some places just don't have Steinways. For example, in Hawaii, I think you can only get a Baldwin or a Yamaha. When we played there the first time [in October 1974] we had to borrow a piano from some doctor and physically take it out of his house.
Elton John certainly had access to other pianos during this period, including a Steinway in his Windsor home, at which he was famously photographed by Terry O’Neill for the album cover of his 1974 Greatest Hits album. Photographs of the European dates played in 1974 show a Hamburg Steinway in use, and a slightly different model features on the cover of his 1976 studio album Here and There, featuring recessed panels to the top of the legs.
Elton’s recorded purchase of this Steinway in August 1975 at his Beverly Hills home preceded the release in October of his album Rock The Westies, and his two sell-out shows at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, on 25 and 26 October 1975, where he played to 100,000 people across both nights – the largest ever concerts by a solo artist at the time. For both nights he played a Steinway Model D wrapped in reflective silver foil, whilst dressed in a rhinestone-studded baseball outfit in tribute to the historic venue. Speaking to Doerschuk in 1981 about his Steinway, he reported that they're not the sort of thing you go around buying. As I say, I've had my old Steinway for five or six years. This was the one on the Dodger Stadium tour [1975] that looked like the Concorde, but that was just the stuff built around it. It's basically a black Steinway, although it's white now; I just had it lacquered.
During 1977, in a lull in touring, Elton lent a Steinway – possibly this piano – to Queen, with whom he shared a manager in John Reid at the time. Elton’s piano was used by Freddie Mercury in 1977 for three months of their US tour to promote A Day At The Races from January, and then onwards for the UK and European leg that summer. Photographs show the presence of the same panel design to the top of the leg, as well as parallel rails to the long side (traces of which can be seen on the present piano), which were visible to the audience thanks to Queen’s particular stage set-up. Correspondence from Peter Hince, Queen’s road manager at the time recalls the loan and states how helpful it was to have the same instrument every night fitted with Helpinstill pickups, which did not have to be moved or repositioned each time.
During 1979 Elton John undertook a major world tour to support his 1978 album A Single Man, supported by percussionist Ray Cooper. The tour included eight concerts in the Soviet Union – the first time a Western artist had performed in the USSR – for which he played a Hamburg Steinway. For the dates outside of the USSR he played a Model D Steinway which was at this point painted red, yellow and black in homage to his beloved Watford F.C. That piano had different bolt-on legs, which could be more swiftly attached and detached every time the piano was moved on and off stage, and heavy locking castors more suited to touring use.
Into 1980 and through to 1988 Elton John played Steinways exclusively – including at Live Aid in 1985, where Elton’s white piano was one of two used on stage through the day, including for the finale with Paul McCartney singing ‘Let It Be’ to an estimated audience of a billion people worldwide. Throughout this period there were variations to leg design and color and it is impossible to say which performances this piano might have been used for. If we are to take at face value the 1981 interview with Contemporary Keyboard, it would appear that Elton John had a principle touring piano during the period 1975-1980, one which included at least two color and leg changes from the original black. However, this does not account for backups and substitutions, which would have inevitably been a requirement for such a busy touring musician at the height of his fame.
This piano clearly shows evidence of having been played and toured extensively – and bears the modified action, with light-touch keys and lacquered hammers, which was so important to Elton John, as he reported to Doerschuk: I think that when you first sit down at a piano, within a minute you can tell whether you're going to like it because of the tone quality, but the action is really even more important to me. The piano I have now has been doctored so much that the action is ridiculous; it's just like an electric piano… It's real fast. The action on it now is absolutely incredible. Following inspection of the piano in 2021, Steinway reported that the action regulation was customized and set up to Elton John's preference in the 1970's which included re-weighting the keys to provide a very light and responsive touch.
In addition, the underside of the lid features additional bracing, intended to support additional weight – and designed to be danced upon. The long side bears traces of side rails which would have been essential to quickly and easily move it on and off stage and between venues. The underside of the carcase shows traces of different leg arrangements, which Steinway confirmed would be fairly standard for Concert Grands, either when a piano was being refinished (as this so often was) and/or if there was a change in castors required – with large locking castors being more suited to touring and stage use. And there are the aforementioned multiple decorative schemes, with the piano evidently having needed to be refinished following the rigours of touring. Irrespective of its particular concert appearances, this piano was undoubtedly a well-travelled and well-used instrument, only retired when Elton John decided to move away from Steinways in 1988. For a time it resided at the home of John Reid, when it was decorated in a simulated woodgrain pattern. Following it being included in Reid’s Christie’s sale in 1998, Sir Elton John reacquired the piano and once again lacquered it black to the present high-gloss finish.
REFERENCE
B. Doerschuk, ‘Elton John’, Contemporary Keyboard, February 1981, pp. 32-55.
Christie’s would like to thank Stephen Goodman and Steinway & Sons for their assistance in cataloguing this lot.