Elton John Plays Career-Spanning Hits at Live-Streamed Dodger Stadium American Farewell

by Julian Spivey

Photo: Disney

Elton John brought his Farewell Yellow Brick Road retirement tour to Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium on Sunday, Nov. 20 for a terrific celebration of his more than a half-century of incredible pop music in an event that was streamed live across the world via Disney+.

Disney has yet to release the number of people who streamed the concert live on Sunday night but I’m sure that number is likely in the millions, even with the after 8 p.m. start time in Los Angeles meaning folks in the Eastern and Central time zones were tuning in after 11 or 10 p.m. Nearly 50,000 lucky concertgoers got to see the show in person at Dodger Stadium, the venue where Elton John performed one of his most famous American shows in 1975. It was Elton John’s 103rd show overall during his career in the Los Angeles area.

I’m so appreciative of Elton John and Disney coming together to stream this American farewell show as a lifelong fan of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician.

Elton John’s final American concert on Sunday night was filled with the musician’s greatest hits, some epic live performances, one or two deep cuts and multiple guests adding to the bigness of the evening.

Elton John began his show around 8:15 p.m. Pacific time (10:15 p.m. from my recliner at home) with “Bennie and the Jets,” his 1973 No. 1 hit off Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. The hits would come in half dozens from that point on with “Philadelphia Freedom” and “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues” following, before Elton’s performance of his very first single “Border Song,” off his 1970 self-titled debut album, which was memorably covered by the legendary Aretha Franklin, whom he dedicated the song too on Sunday night.

It was somewhat surprising how early in his set Elton John performed “Tiny Dancer” and “Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going to be a Long, Long Time),” as my wife pointed out to me. But when you’re an artist with this many huge hits, you must pace them throughout your setlist. The most surprising performance of the evening to me came sandwiched between these potentially top-five greatest Elton John songs in the rarely performed “Have Mercy on the Criminal,” off his 1973 album Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player. I’m a big fan of Elton John, and I’m not sure I’d ever heard this song.

A couple of Elton John live standouts, that weren’t necessarily big hits, are “Take Me to the Pilot” and “Burn Down the Mission,” which were a lot of fun to see. These were sprinkled in midst a bunch of oldies and classic rock radio stalwarts like “Levon,” “Candle in the Wind” and “Crocodile Rock.”

If there was one song in his repertoire that I would’ve liked to have seen that he didn’t perform on Sunday night it would be “Honky Cat,” one of the singles off his 1972 album Honky Chateau. The most surprising song he didn’t perform in his final American concert was his 1973 No. 1 hit “Daniel.”

I would’ve liked to have heard these songs more so than the performances of “Sad Songs (Say So Much),” “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word” or “I’m Still Standing,” but that’s potentially just me, as the live crowd at Dodger Stadium seemed to be having fun with these performances.

One truly funny moment because this was being streamed on the sometimes too strict about being family friendly Disney+ was Elton's performance of "The Bitch is Back," in which he undoubtedly set an unbreakable record for most times the word "bitch" would ever be said or sung on the platform. 

Two of Elton John’s guests would appear toward the end of his set with Grammy-winner Brandi Carlile coming out to duet on “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” and Kiki Dee would join him for their 1976 No. 1 hit duet “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” You could tell this was one of the greatest moments in Carlile’s life as she was beaming the entire performance and sounded as terrific as she always does. Dee’s vocal was a little bit rough.

Before the end of his set, Elton John would introduce the crowd to his career-long lyricist Bernie Taupin, the brilliant songwriter behind the words to all of Elton’s fantastic recordings. Elton would also introduce the crowd to his “reason for retiring” his family – husband David Furnish and their two sons Elijah and Zachary.

Elton John and his fantastic band guitarist Davey Johnstone, drummer Nigel Olsson, percussionists Ray Cooper and John Mahon, keyboardist Kim Bullard and bassist Matt Bissonette would end their set with a terrific rocking performance of “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting.”

Elton John would begin his encore, wearing a sparkling sequined bathrobe with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ LA logo emblazoned on it sort of the retirement version of the famous outfit he wore at the initial Dodger Stadium show in 1975, with a performance with Dua Lipa of their No. 7 Billboard Hot 100 hit “Cold Heart,” which went to No. 1 in Elton’s home country of the United Kingdom. The two sounded excellent together and it’s crazy to think Elton John at 75 years old and 52 years after his first top-10 hit could still be making hit pop records like this.

Elton John would end his final American encore with the classic one-two punch of “Your Song,” which was his first top-10 hit in 1970, my life-long personal favorite song of his. It was beautiful to see him perform it live one last time. He then finished with “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” which is, of course, the song he’s going to end his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour performing and it was amazing to see and then have him get up on a lift that rose him up above the stage and away, followed by him leisurely walking down a yellow brick road on the video screen above the stage.

This Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour for Elton John began more than four years ago in 2018 and once it’s wrapped with his final European leg of the tour next year will have included more than 300 dates. Of course, it was delayed for nearly two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic that shut down live music pretty much worldwide. The tour would have been wrapped by now without that delay.

I had the pleasure of seeing the tour live at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla. in February of 2019 – my one and only Elton John show – and it was everything I hoped it would be. The set that night was similar to what Elton John performed at Dodger Stadium on Sunday night.

Elton John has given us a lifetime of fantastic music and live performances and now I wish him well and happiness with his family in retirement.