My Dad was a HUGE Elton John fan. Ever since I was a kid, we’d listen to Honky Chateau, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Captain Fantastic and the Dirt Brown Cowboy in the car (on 8-Track) for our daily drives to work/school, etc. I think over the years my Dad received every Elton John album on every format possible…I bought him cassettes for Father’s Day, CD’s for his birthday, Vinyl for Christmas…and he always loved and played them. Then one year I changed it up and bought him a VHS of a live concert. I came home one afternoon to see him taking the tape out of the VCR and he asked me to sit down. ‘Jason, your gift was really thoughtful. I LOVE Elton John’s music. I realized about 10 minutes into this though, that I love LISTENING to him but cannot stand watching the silly twit’! I laughed and completely understood. Elton was ALWAYS a showman and seeing a clip here or there on TV (I loved his stint on The Muppets) was entertaining but there was just too much entertaining and not enough singing in a full concert for my Dad. He enjoyed watching other live shows, but they were always the standard live shows from people like the Eagles: no theatrics (he HATED watching live Kiss videos too), no weird costumes. It just wasn’t his thing. When my Dad passed away this year, I came home with what was left of his music collection, including his Elton John CD’s. They’ve been getting regular play in the car when the boys and I are on our drives and my middle son always asks for ‘Grampa Donnie’s Music’.
This week, it was announced that Barbie was launching it’s first ever ‘Elton John’ inspired Barbie and it looks fantastic! Harkening back to 1975 and yet another iconic, and ridiculous, Elton John costume. I know that my dad would have hated it, however I also know my middle son is going to love it. If Dad was still here, I think he would have received one from my son this week as a belated birthday present. Likely, my son would also be receiving one at Christmas as a present from Grandpa Donnie. I also know that as ridiculous as he may have found it, had he received this Barbie from my son, Dad would have displayed it proudly in his place and would have let EVERYONE know that his grandson sent it to him for his birthday.
It’s been a rough year for the kids and I without Dad, but I think that having an Elton Barbie show up for my middle son at Christmas might just ease that pain a little. 
