Elton John has made Billboard Boxscore history. His Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour is the highest-grossing concert tour of all time.
As Eric Frankenberg reported on Monday: “According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour has grossed $817.9 million across 278 shows so far — more than any tour in Boxscore history. Bypassing Ed Sheeran’s The Divide Tour ($776.4 million), it is the first tour in Billboard’s archives to cross the $800 million benchmark.”
Frankenberg adds that Elton owns another Billboard Boxscore record. “Dating back to reports for John’s Ice on Fire Tour (1986), and including his share of co-headline runs with Eric Clapton, James Taylor, Tina Turner and, many times over, Billy Joel, John has grossed $1.863 billion and sold 19.9 million tickets over 1,573 reported shows. That’s the highest career gross and attendance for a solo artist in Boxscore history, having passed Bruce Springsteen and Madonna while on this tour.”
These are remarkable achievements, but then most Billboard readers know that Elton John has been setting Billboard records for decades. He has amassed seven No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 and nine No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 (counting his contribution to Dionne & Friends’ 1986 smash “That’s What Friends Are For”). He has topped or climbed high on many other charts as well. In 1974, his funky “Bennie and the Jets” reached No. 15 on Hot Soul Singles, the forerunner of today’s Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs chart, a rarity for a white pop artist at that time.
Here are 10 times Elton made Billboard history:
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