Elton John and Bernie Taupin first sat down and talked to each other in the Lancaster Grill on Tottenham Court Road, the month The Beatles released Sgt Pepper. Since then, the Lincolnshire poet and the pianist from Pinner have forged a partnership unequalled in the history of rock 'n' roll.

In the 34 years since their joint credit first appeared, on 'Lord You Made The Night Too Long' (the B-side of Long John Baldry's hit 'Let The Heartaches Begin') they have seen out not only The Beatles/ but also Led Zeppelin, the Sex Pistols, The Jam, Wham!, The Smiths, The Verve…

And while others may come and go, the songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin have cemented themselves into the very foundations of popular music. 'Your Song', 'Rocket Man', 'Daniel', 'Tiny Dancer'/ 'Candle In The Wind'/ 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart', 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight', 'Sad Songs (Say So Much)', 'Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me', 'Sacrifice'... The list goes on forever...

Songs From The West Coast carries that celebrated partnership on into the 21st Century By Elton's reckoning it is "round about my 40th album." It is also one of his best! And that's quite an accolade, especially when you realize that puts Songs From The West Coast right up there with Tumbleweed Connection and Madman Across The Water; Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only The Piano Player and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road; Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy and Too Low For Zero...

In other words, these men have a history – and one constant has been that they write in isolation. Over the years, Bernie has submitted his lyrics to Elton by letter, fax and e-mail. Until now. Until Songs From The West Coast.

"Bernie had already written a load of lyrics and he brought some with him to Nice," Elton explains, "and we thought we'd just see how we progressed from there."

It was in the summer of 2000 that Bernie joined Elton at his house in the south of France to talk about the new album. Both men knew that this would be a crucial album for them – and they wanted Songs From The West Coast to be nothing less than perfect.

"I think the main decision was that we had to be really harsh on ourselves; we had to draw a line in the sand and say by the time this album comes out, I'm going to be 54. I want to make it really strong, perfect! The best album I can do at the time. And I think with this album we've really achieved that."

That discipline and sheer determination has helped mark out Songs From The West Coast as one of the all-time great Elton John albums. From the poignant 'Ballad Of The Boy In The Red Shoes' the pensive Emperor's New Clothes' and heartfelt American Triangle'; through classic Elton and Bernie ballads like 'I Want Love'; right up to the very last track - the triumphant This Train Don't Stop There Anymore'; each and every track had to fight for its place on the album.

We wrote twenty-two songs, recorded eighteen, ended up with twelve..." Elton explained. "We chose the twelve that went best together starting with 'The Emperor's New Clothes' which is just me, piano and voice – and that set the tone for the whole album. I think it's very much in the vein of Tumbleweed Connection or Madman Across The Water…

"There's just piano, bass, drums and guitar on the basic tracks. Pat Leonard and Billy Preston added organ, and there are some Paul Buckmaster strings on three tracks and some brass on 'The Emperor's New Clothes'. Stevie Wonder plays clavinette and harmonica on 'Dark Diamond' and Rufus Wainwright sings with me on 'American Triangle'. And that's it!"

Elton's enthusiasm for Songs From The West Coast is infectious. But such is his celebrity status today, that one basic fact is frequently overlooked – long before the Aids Foundation and the auctions, the fashion shows, charity parties and gossip columns... Elton John was a bona-fide, platinum-certified, 24-carat rock 'n' roll star.

But it wasn't always that way. By the time Elton John became an "overnight success" with 'Your Song' in 1971, he had already been a professional musician for five years! As a teenage piano prodigy, he had begun performing at a hotel near his home in Pinner, before joining the group Bluesology. And those deep musical roots are very much in evidence on Songs From The West Coast.

"The Wasteland" is a heavy blues, Robert Johnson at the crossroads. People may not associate that with me, but don't forget, I started off in a blues band. Bluesology played Muddy Waters tracks, J.B. Lenoir songs – we were a real blues band. But as a keyboard player, it's very tempting to move away from 12-bar blues because it's so boring! For a guitarist, it's great; but for a piano player it's the most boring thing in the world! 'Wasteland' is not strictly a 12-bar blues, but it's fun to play that kind of song. I haven't played piano like that on a record for ages!"

The road from Bluesology led to that NME ad, and an audition where Elton performed a selection of Jim Reeves songs! It was a surprising choice of material for the Summer of Love, but something clicked – and the result was that first fateful meeting with Bernie. The rest, as they say – for once quite accurately – is history.

Even after he began writing and recording under his own name, Elton continued to make a bit extra on the side by hiring himself out as a session pianist. And among the more memorable sessions he undertook during the dog-days of the 60's were 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother' by The Hollies; Tom Jones' 'Delilah', and The Scaffold's 'Gin Gan Goolie'!

Another day's work, early in 1970, found Elton demoing material of aspiring singer-songwriters like Richard Thompson, John Martyn and Nick Drake - today, a copy of that ultra-rare demo album would set you back in excess of 1,000! But in a London still reeling from the split of The Beatles and waiting for the next big thing, it wasn't long before Elton John began making a name for himself in his own right.

By the time 'Your Song' became a hit in January 1971, Elton had released three albums, including Elton John and the landmark Tumble-weed Connection; and he was already developing a reputation as an unparalleled live performer, with memorable gigs opening for Marc Bolan's T. Rex at the Roundhouse and Sandy Denny's Fotheringay at the Royal Albert Hall.

And once the hits started coming, they just didn't stop. Throughout the 70's, Elton was everywhere: guesting on The Morecambe & Wise Show, duetting with Miss Piggy on The Muppet Show, hosting Top Of The Pops... and it wasn't just at home in Britain; in America too, Elton John had become a phenomenon!

Stateside it all began with a storming show at the Los Angeles Troubadour. Elton was opening for the late singer-songwriter David Ackles, but word soon got out about the new kid in town – and overnight a star was born! Within days of arriving in America, Elton and Bernie found their teenage idols – like Bob Dylan and Brian Wilson – coming backstage, keen to say 'hi!'

Between 1972 and 1975, Elton enjoyed an unprecedented run of seven consecutive No. l albums in America. He made history again when Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy became the first album ever to enter the American charts at No. l. His Greatest Hits album sold an incredible 13 million copies in America alone. And, to top it all, Elton scored three No. l singles in America in a single year – a record which had stood unchallenged since The Beatles' conquest a decade before.

Elton's superstar status was confirmed on the night of 28th November 1974, when he was joined on stage at New York's Madison Square Garden by his friend John Lennon. Of all his thousands of shows to date, that one on Thanksgiving Night 1974 is the one that remains most vivid for Elton – and for the 20,000 people in the audience for what would prove, tragically, to be John Lennon's last-ever concert performance.

Looking back across the years to that extraordinary decade, the really astonishing thing is not just the quality of the music he was producing, but the sheer quantity...

"It was pure momentum," Elton admits. "The first five years of my career, everything was innocent, nothing was thought about, nothing planned. It was just the momentum, and 'Gee, I can't believe this is happening to us! It's so great, I'm meeting all these people, I'm playing with these people'. It was 17 albums in five years – plus different singles and B-sides! It was a lot of work. But it didn't seem like work at the time."

It seems incredible today, when taking several years between albums is commonplace; but it's absolutely true that Madman Across The Water; Honky Chateau; Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only The Piano Player; Goodbye Yellow Brick Road; Caribou; Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy; Rock Of The Westies; and Blue Moves were all written, recorded and released in an astonishingly creative five-year burst between 1971 and 1976!

Running alongside the relentless touring schedule, it was inevitable that such a prolific output would begin to take its toll; and during the 1980s Elton just had to wind things down. But even this relatively low-key decade saw him producing albums as strong as Too Low For Zero, Breaking Hearts and Sleeping With The Past. And it was the last of these that finally gave Elton the prize he had always craved – a British No. l single.

Unbelievably, in an extraordinary career reaching back almost 20 years, Elton John had never before made it to the top slot at home, alone. His only previous No. l single in Britain had been the 1976 duet with Kiki Dee, 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart'. But in 1990 'Sacrifice' changed all that.

And 'Sacrifice' soon became significant for more than just its chart position. From that moment on, Elton announced, all royalties from his UK singles would go to AIDS charities – and in 1992 he made the same pledge for his American singles.

Always keen to flex his creative muscles in challenging new directions, 1994 saw Elton embarking on a new and fruitful collaboration with Sir Tim Rice. Their first project together was the hugely successful music for Disney's animated film The Lion King. One of the songs from their soundtrack, 'Can You Feel The Love Tonight', struck a particularly resonant chord, helping Elton become one of the few rock stars to win the Oscar for Best Original Song. And it didn't stop there. The Lion King soon developed a life of its own, becoming a stage musical, which opened on Broadway in 1997, and later in London.

The two Rock Knights have continued to work together to great acclaim ever since. First on the animated feature El Dorado and then on a version of Verdi's opera Aida, featuring new songs written by the pair and tackled by a bewilderingly diverse array of artists, including Sting, the Spice Girls, LeAnn Rimes, Janet Jackson and Shania Twain. Even Broadway couldn't resist Elton with The Lion King and Aida running as number one and number two musicals on Broadway – an unprecedented feat!

As the 20th century drew to an end, Elton continued writing, performing and recording, and much to his own surprise his energy and enthusiasm remained undiminished.

"I didn't think I'd still be working this hard. In the 90's I made three albums – The One, Made In England and The Big Picture. There were some really great songs on those albums. I did The Lion King film, I did The Lion King musical – I mean stage musicals like The Lion King often take four or five years. I did the Aida musical, and album; and I did El Dorado, plus the three albums, plus the Diana single, plus the film company... and that's an awful lot of work!"

What Elton calls "the Diana single" was of course, 'Candle In The Wind 1997'. His performance at Westminster Abbey, singing Bernie's hastily re-written but poignantly appropriate lyrics before an estimated television audience of two billion people, was without doubt one of the defining moments of that terrible week in September 1997. And the single he recorded later that day went on to break all records, becoming a worldwide hit and – with sales of over 33 million copies – the best-selling single in the history of popular music.

The knighthood that came in 1998 was widely welcomed and well deserved; but though proud of the honor, as a hard-working rock 'n' roller, Sir Elton keeps his title modestly out of sight. Asked about future plans, he reels them off enthusiastically and in detail: "I'm doing solo shows all over Europe, Turkey and Morocco, places I've never played before like Latvia, Estonia... Then I'll be rehearsing with the band, doing some shows in America. Then I go to the Far East to do solo shows. Then I start next year with Billy Joel again."

The 21st century Elton John is tireless – and clearly as enthusiastic as ever about music. But given that he has long-since shattered all the records and won all the glittering prizes, you just have to ask: what motivates him to keep on working so hard?

"Well I never thought that at 54 I'd be doing as much touring as I'm doing now. But I'm enjoying playing live, I really love the piano and voice tours – the solo show really was a salvation to me, I went everywhere in America, small places that I've never been before... And I will always have that as part of my repertoire now. But for a change I can also tour with my band, or I can do the big things with Billy Joel and have fun. So there are three different ways of not getting bored on stage – and each one presents a different challenge. I'm just enjoying myself more than I ever have, especially on stage."

"I feel so much more comfortable playing live now than I've ever done. And I feel so fortunate to be loving what I do just as much, feeling just as passionate. I'm the consummate fan. I was a fan when I became famous in 1970 and I still feel the same way now. I still get excited by the music – my own and other people's!"

Right now he has every reason to be excited: Songs from the West Coast is a great album – already assured of its place alongside earlier Elton classics like Tumbleweed Connection, Madman Across The Water and Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy.

Songs from the West Coast is the album that made Elton John sit down and take stock. It was a new century, a new beginning. So he started again from scratch – building the 12 songs around his voice, his piano and a small band. Just like the old days.

Unusually for an artist of his standing, Elton has always kept his finger firmly and knowledgeably on the pulse of modern music. In the course of one conversation, he namechecks Ryan Adams, Whiskeytown, Nelly Furtado, Basement Jaxx, Alison Goldfrapp and Nithin Sawhney! But he has also learned the importance of playing to his own strengths.

There is a sense with artists of my generation, that we're frightened of letting the record out sounding a bit naked. With the advent of all the new technology, the temptation is to try and sample different sounds. You want to try other things. You want to pinch ideas and see what you can do with them.

I think now, with all the different keyboard sounds, the temptation is to put too much on a record. But on reflection, I don't think I'm a great synthesizer player, I'm not really interested in it... I'm a much better piano player – and in the end, I had to go back to doing what I do best of all.

For two years I've been doing piano and voice shows, solo shows, and I wanted to put that to good use. Two years of getting my piano-playing and my singing really, really good – I've just got to use that.

I've even stripped the band down now, we've only got one guitarist. There just weren't enough holes! The holes on a record are so important, the space. But you know, you get carried away: you listen to something you really like by say, Groove Armada or Underworld... and that influences you, and you want to try it yourself.

But, you know, I'm not Groove Armada, I'm Elton John... and on this album, I decided, I'm just going to be as Elton as I can!"

- Patrick Humphries, 2001