Elton John to Wed Partner

Elton John, 58, has announced his plans to marry longtime partner David Furnish, 42. The two plan to hold a civil partnership ceremony in December or in early 2006 in Windsor, near London. "Meeting David has been the greatest thing to happen to me," John told British tabloid the Daily Mirror of his boyfriend of eleven years.

The union became possible when the United Kingdom legalized civil partnerships in December of last year. John's publicist stated that the singer's primary motivation for the marriage is the tax break now available to both married couples and civil partnerships. This will be John's second marriage: He married German music engineer Renate Blauel in 1984, and the couple divorced four years later.

John will be touring North America and Europe until late this year, beginning on April 28th in Kansas City, Missouri. Acknowledging his busy schedule, the singer said, "There will be no honeymoon. I'm on tour."

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

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