According to venerable music writer and television presenter David Hepworth:
“The best thing any book about pop music can do is send us back to the records we thought we knew in order to hear the many things we missed and to learn how they came to be. With this absorbing book about the restless musical life of Elton John, Matthew Restall has done us all that service.”
Oxford University Press announced the publication of ON ELTON JOHN: AN OPINIONATED GUIDE in March 2025 (US) and July 2025 (UK):
Elton John is not only “still standing,” he is a living superlative, the ultimate record-breaking, award-winning survivor of the great era of pop and rock music that he helped to shape during his six decades in the music industry. Yet few of his numerous biographies and song guides take him as a historical subject worthy of scholarly study.
In contrast, On Elton John approaches the artist seriously and analytically, while still couched in a highly accessible style. Author Matthew Restall offers a new way to explore John’s career and music within the contexts of other artists and of sweeping shifts in popular culture during his lifetime. Each of the ten chapters is anchored to an Elton song, rooted in its pop culture history, and advances our understanding of his artistry by pairing him with figures ranging from his lyricist Bernie Taupin to Bennie (of the Jets), from “frenemy” David Bowie to artists like Rod Stewart, Aretha Franklin, and Dua Lipa, and from Princess Diana to Jesus. Restall contends that John’s career offers us a novel way to see and understand the last half century of pop music and culture history—whether we call the era that of the album, of rock, or of postmodernism. The yellow brick road of John’s career has been long, winding, and bumpy, but, as Restall argues, his success has come not just despite but because of those challenges. John’s transformations from Reg to Elton to Sir Elton to Uncle Elton, from ugly duckling to bedazzled swan, from the world’s biggest rock star to creator of the world’s largest AIDS fundraising organization, from tabloid punching bag to pop royalty, have all served as survival strategies that illuminate the era he has thereby navigated.
A must-have for fans, On Elton John will appeal to a wide range of readers interested in music history, popular culture, and the social issues of our era.
According to one online review, Restall “takes a lively look at John’s discography through the lens of noted figures adjacent to him. Several songs written by John’s longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin, such as “I’m Still Standing,” receive new interpretations about his life. A cover of “Border Song” by Aretha Franklin introduces a chapter on how John inadvertently gained an R&B audience with “Bennie and the Jets.” John’s ever-changing career and his initial decision (eventually reversed) to not be out as a gay man are juxtaposed with David Bowie’s chameleon personas and his Ziggy Stardust-era announcement of his bisexuality. Restall enthusiastically critiques John’s songs and albums, supporting arguments using archived interviews and biographies. Almost every comprehensive piece combines to declare John one of the best performers ever. However, Restall attempts to reduce Bowie in comparison by frequently remarking how John did something first (performed on Soul Train) or better (“Rocket Man” vs.”Starman”). VERDICT: Despite Restall’s Bowie asides, this is a magnificent overview of John’s music and legacy; an excellent addition to the plethora of music criticism.
The verdict of musicologist Nate Sloan:
“On Elton John brings the Rocket Man back to earth, in the best possible way . . . By writing in the same way John composes—with style, passion, and bit of cheek—Matthew Restall enacts a kind of reverse mythmaking. His assiduous research and probing analysis show how John’s best work emerged through a shifting web od collaborations, rivalries, and restless creativity, and it reveals the manifold ways John’s music resonates through our modern world.”
On Elton John earned a prime spot on this Florida summer 2025 reading list: https://outsfl.com/books/pride-2025-reading-list-spins-screens-and-a-stage
Meanwhile, an Open Letters Review began with:
“’For the sake of my Bibliography’s thematic coherence, I have not included in it works on the Aztecs.’ Delightfully, this sentence is to be found in a new book about Elton John, the latest in Oxford University Press’ small “Opinionated Guide” series covering luminaries of pop culture. As well as being the author of this volume, Matthew Restall is an extensively published historian of early Latin American history, which is lamentably atypical for authors in this series, or authors of books about Elton John. In reality, there are only a couple of references to the Maya and the Aztecs, with Restall’s expertise becoming evident from the way it is completely integrated into his approach. The historian takes a long view of his subject, notices patterns, connects dots and offers interpretations. Restall applies this to Elton John with often astounding success, giving an unprecedentedly coherent view of a remarkably varied and enduring career.”
Concludes the reviewer: “Fellow superfans – I’m speaking as a veteran one – will find nothing new here, other than a recurring sense of revelation, and the satisfaction of feeling previously disparate pieces of knowledge suddenly connect. It is an invigorating experience.”