Elton John

Aida (1998)

1.Another Pyramid (Sting)
2.Written in the Stars (Elton John and LeAnn Rimes)
3.Easy as Life (Tina Turner)
4.My Strongest Suit (Spice Girls)
5.I Know the Truth (Elton John and Janet Jackson)
6.Not Me (Boys II Men)
7.Anmeris' Letter (Shania Twain)
8.A Step Too Far (Elton John, Heather (Headley and Sherrie Scott)
9.Like Father Like Son (Lenny Kravitz)
10.Elaborate Lives (Heather Headley)
11.How I Know You (James Taylor)
12.The Messenger (Elton John and Lulu)
13.The Gods Love Nubia (Kelly Price)
14.Enchanment Passing Through (Dru Hill)
15.Orchestral Finale

By the late 1990s, Elton John had comfortably entered what could only be described as his “anything goes” phase. No longer tethered to trends or commercial expectation, he seemed determined to follow his own creative compass—wherever it pointed. Aida, a collaboration with lyricist Tim Rice, fits neatly into this period. The concept? Reimagine Verdi’s famous opera through a pop music lens. The result? Ambitious, polished, and strangely difficult to place.

It wasn’t a film soundtrack. It wasn’t (yet) a Broadway score. Instead, it was a studio concept album—pop songs written around the Aida narrative, performed by a wide array of artists, with Elton himself making only a few fleeting appearances. If that sounds a bit disjointed, it’s because it is.

The idea, on paper, makes sense. Elton is a lifelong music aficionado, with a famously encyclopedic knowledge of other artists. He has championed obscure bands, supported emerging talent, and collaborated across genres with the kind of enthusiasm that few legacy artists bother to maintain. So, it’s not entirely surprising that when given the chance to populate this album with voices other than his own, he eagerly took it.

What results is something closer to a tribute compilation than an Elton John album. There are undeniably good songs here—many, in fact—and the performers all deliver competent, often passionate, takes. But the stylistic variance is so broad that cohesion becomes a casualty. One moment, we’re hearing Heather Headley’s powerful, theatrical delivery; the next, the Spice Girls. Dru Hill and Boyz II Men appear alongside Sting and Lenny Kravitz. Elton’s taste may be wide-ranging, but his core audience might not be quite as expansive in theirs.

Worse still, the album arrived without a visual anchor. There was no film, no stage production at the time of release—just a collection of songs referencing a story many listeners only vaguely understood. When the Aida musical eventually premiered on Broadway a couple of years later (with a substantially different cast and feel), this studio version felt more like a draft than a definitive edition.

That said, there is a version of Aida that remains tantalizingly out of reach: Elton’s own. Demos exist (buried online or whispered about among collectors) in which Elton performs the entire album himself—each track delivered in his own voice, unified by his sensibility. The contrast is startling. What was diffuse and varied suddenly becomes personal and cohesive. It’s the version that fans didn’t know they needed—and one that, to this day, remains unreleased in any official form.

In the end, Aida the album is a fascinating experiment—a glimpse into Elton’s ongoing artistic curiosity and his love of collaboration. But it’s also a reminder that sometimes, less is more. A noble effort, an intriguing detour, but one that ultimately left listeners wishing for something simpler: Elton, a piano, and a little less distance between the music and the man.

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