The Rocket Record Company was founded by Elton John in 1973.
As you might imagine, the Rocket Record Company was named after his hit song ‘Rocket Man’ which was first released in 1972 and is of course now also the name of the hit film about him, released in 2019.
While originally being a fairly standard record label, Rocket Records has blossomed into a broad ranging company who work in stage, screen and even sport talent. The sports side of it supports some very successful athletes including cyclist Jason Kenny, winner of 9 Olympic medals. SportsAid and Elton John put on a large concert in 2014 at Stoke Park in order to raise money for athletes hoping to compete at the Olympics and Paralympics.
As a music label, Rocket’s major signings included Kiki Dee, Cliff Richard and Neil Sedaka. Despite being absorbed by Island/Def Jam in 1999, Elton continued using the logo on his new releases until 2007.
Despite still existing as a label today, Rocket is mostly a management company – handling artists including Ed Sheeran and Anne-Marie who performed in West End productions as a child and is now a major pop singer, featuring on tracks with artists like David Guetta and Rudimental as well as her on her own. She’s also a black belt in Karate!
David Furnish produced a documentary about Elton John called ‘Tantrums and Tiaras’
The filmmaking side of Rocket Entertainment is headed up by Elton’s husband David Furnish who is from Canada, and originally studied degrees in Business. He started out his film career in 1997, with a documentary about Elton John called ‘Tantrums and Tiaras’. His more recent films include Gnomeo and Juliet, and Sherlock Gnomes (a definite theme here…). He and Elton have been together since 1993 and were married in 2005.
Did you know?
The original Rocket Record Company logo was based on the children's book ‘The Little Engine that Could’. It is a folktale that is used to teach kids about the value of optimism and hard work.
