Wearing a green sequined suit, platform shoes, and rounded white-rimmed glasses, 25-year-old Elton John electrified Horton Field House’s capacity crowd with a two-and-a-half-hour spectacle of theatrical musicianship 50 years ago.
“It was magical,” said John Dallinger ’74, a junior when Elton John performed at Illinois State University October 11, 1972. “I remember him standing, playing the piano, kicking his legs backward, high up in the air. He was almost parallel to the ground, still playing the piano. We’d never seen anything like it before.”
Photo by The Vidette.
Although Dallinger and his friends weren’t too familiar with then-newcomer Elton John’s music when the show was announced, they decided to go. It would be fun even if they didn’t know the songs, they thought. Two days before tickets went on sale, they pitched a tent on the quad to hold their spot in a growing line from Old Union where the tickets would be sold.
“We camped for two nights and played cards, and I’d say we studied, but that probably didn’t happen,” Dallinger said. “We did try to go to our classes. If we were going to get a ticket, that’s what we had to do. So that’s what we did.”
The group was accustomed to waiting in line for tickets—usually for seats to watch the Illinois State men’s basketball team featuring All-American Doug Collins ’73. With a room atop Watterson Towers, Dallinger had a bird’s-eye view which proved beneficial for landing tickets.
“We’d look out, and once people started getting in line, that’s when we went and got in line,” Dallinger said.
He and his five buddies who met as freshmen in Manchester Hall secured 12 seats to the Elton John show—for themselves and their girlfriends—for $5 apiece. With tickets in hand, the group began preparing for the concert.
“Somebody found an album, and so we started listening to it a little bit ahead of time,” Dallinger said.
On the night of the show, Dallinger sat next to his girlfriend—now wife—Judy (Schwiderski) Dallinger ’74, clustered together with their friends in bleachers at the back of Horton Field House overlooking the floor and facing the stage for an unobstructed view of the prolific “Rocket Man” and his grand piano.
Photo by The Vidette.
“He’d jump on the piano, and he’d jump off the piano bench. He’d play standing up. I didn’t have any idea it was going to be like that,” Dallinger said. “I guess that’s why it was kind of magical, because it was something you didn’t expect—that you really loved.”
Dallinger said he and his friends were yelling, screaming, singing, and dancing until the show ended around midnight.
“The crowd was definitely excited to be there,” Dallinger said. “He could get the crowd going, and when he got them going, it got him going too.”
In his review of the Elton John show, The Vidette feature editor Mike Waters ’73 said the audience was treated to a “masterpiece” of a concert. “Without letting up, he hit high point after high point, continually bringing the audience screaming to their feet,” wrote Waters. The Vidette also published a photo spread from the show.
Dallinger was hooked. He and his friends didn’t miss another campus concert. Over the next few years, they saw Chicago, The Guess Who, The Temptations, John Denver, Sha Na Na, and B.B. King—all at Illinois State.
But for Dallinger, nobody quite compared to Elton John. Dallinger and his wife have remained fans for the past five decades. They’ve seen Elton John in concert four times, including during his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour on September 30, 2022, in Arlington, Texas—nearly 50 years to the day that that he captivated the Horton Field House crowd.
“It’s pretty amazing to look back and say, ‘We’ve followed this guy for 50 years, and we still enjoy what he’s doing,’” Dallinger said. “To see him again and know that he’s almost as good as he was—it’s kind of amazing that he can do this for 50 years and still be this good.”
Dallinger still keeps in touch with his college concert buddies who are now spread across the country. They occasionally get together to reminisce. And whenever Dallinger reflects on his time at Illinois State, he thinks fondly about meeting his wife, cheering on the Redbird basketball team, and seeing Elton John.
“It was one of the early highlights of my life,” Dallinger said. “It’s something I’m never going to forget.”
