LOS ANGELES – Julien’s Auctions salutes one of the greatest songwriters of all time with the Personal Property of Bernie Taupin to be sold Nov. 9 live at Hard Rock Café in New York. This spotlight music artist auction event celebrates the 50th anniversary of Bernie Taupin’s writing partnership with pop culture icon Sir Elton John, whose fabled collaboration produced some of music’s greatest hits of all, earning more than 30 gold and platinum albums together, 40 top 10 hit records and worldwide renown as one of pop music’s greatest songwriting duos.

The event kicks off Julien’s Auctions two–day music auction extravaganza with Icons & Idols: Rock–n–Roll taking place Saturday, Nov. 10. The full lineup will be announced at a future date.

Born on May 22, 1950, in England’s rural county of Lincolnshire, Taupin demonstrated an early interest and talent for writing and poetry as a child. In 1967, he answered a “talent wanted” advertisement in the New Musical Express along with a 20-year-old unknown singer/pianist named Reginald Dwight who had also applied to the post. When the two met, Taupin gave him a stack of his lyrics. Reg, who would soon change his name to Elton John, began to write music to the lyrics and thus, began a lifelong songwriting partnership that forever changed their lives and pop music history.

Their first hit together, 1970’s Your Song, brought the duo international fame, subsequently making Bernie Taupin and Elton John household names.

The Taupin–John collaboration dominated the 1970s with a slew of number one and Billboard top 100 charting hits that included Tiny Dancer, Rocket Man, Crocodile Rock, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, (duet with Kiki Dee) and more. From 1970–76, the duo created an astonishing 14 albums including Elton John, Tumbleweed Connection, Madman Across The Water, Honky Chateau, Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player, Caribou, Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy, which became the first album to enter the Billboard 100 at No. 1 and the all-time classic album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, which produced the hit singles Candle in the Wind, Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting, Bennie and the Jets,” and the record’s iconic self–titled track.

In 1997, Taupin rewrote the lyrics of Candle in the Wind in tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, which became the bestselling single in Billboard history and procured Elton John a Grammy® for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for the song that year.

In 1992, Taupin and John were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and later in 2013 were presented with the SHOF’s prestigious Johnny Mercer Award. In 1994, as Elton John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame he beckoned Taupin to the stage and proclaimed, “Without Bernie Taupin, there would be no Elton John” as he handed Taupin his Hall of Fame trophy.

“Bernie Taupin is one of the seminal songwriters of all time whose illustrious collaboration with Sir Elton John created some of pop music’s greatest treasures,” said Darren Julien, president and/chief executive officer of Julien’s Auctions.

Absentee and live online bidding will be facilitated by LiveAuctioneers.

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