Prior to the Troubadour, John had little success. In 1967 the singer (who hadn’t yet changed his name from Reg Dwight) and Taupin were signed by Dick James, a British music mogul who published the Beatles songs. In a 1970 Record Mirror poll, John was named the fifth most promising U.K. act in pop, trailing Juicy Lucy and Pickettywitch, but his singles failed on the charts. Every American label passed on signing him except UNI Records (home of Neil Diamond and not much else), which signed him for an advance of $0.00. James was almost out of patience but resolved to put a final $10,000 into breaking John in the U.S.

Source: Los Angeles Times May 23, 2019 10:04 UTC