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The Dixie Chicks (May 29, 2006)JILL GREENBERG FOR TIME
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Kanye West (Aug. 29, 2005)KWAKU ALSTON FOR TIME
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Ricky Martin (May 24, 1999)TIME
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Lauryn Hill (Feb. 8, 1999)TIME
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Jewel (July 21, 1997)HERB RITTS
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Pearl Jam (Oct. 25, 1993)NEAL PRESTON
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Garth Brooks (March 30, 1992)JAMES SCHNEPF / GAMMA LIAISON
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Madonna (May 27, 1985)FRANCESCO SCAVULLO
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Michael Jackson (March 19, 1984)ANDY WARHOL
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David Bowie (July 18, 1983)TIME
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The Who (Dec. 17, 1979)TIME
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Linda Ronstadt (Feb. 28, 1977)MILTON GREENE
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Paul McCartney (May 31, 1976)RICHARD E. AARON
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Elton John (July 7, 1975)DON WELLER
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Cher (March 17, 1975)RICHARD AVEDON
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Joni Mitchell (Dec. 16, 1974)BOB PEAK
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James Taylor (March 1, 1971)J. H. BRESLOW
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The Band (Jan. 12, 1970)BOB PEAK
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Aretha Franklin (June 28, 1968)BORIS CHALIAPIN
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The Beatles (Sept. 22, 1967)TIME
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Joan Baez (Nov. 23, 1962)TIME
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Frank Sinatra (Aug. 29, 1955)TIME
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Rosemary Clooney (Feb. 23, 1953)BORIS CHALIAPIN
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Louis Armstrong (Feb. 21, 1949)BORIS ARTZYBASHEFF
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Bing Crosby (Apr. 7, 1941)ERNEST HAMLIN BAKER
When Elton John took the stage for two back-to-back sold out shows at Dodger Stadium 40 years ago, on Oct. 25 and 26 of 1975, it wasn’t because he was a big baseball fan. He preferred the English game of rounders, he told TIME, because it was “not nearly as violent” and didn’t involve “sliding into bases and trying to get the guy with your cleats.”
Rather, at the very height of his fame, the performer needed the stadium (twice over, in fact) to accommodate the 100,000+ fans desperate to see him play. So the baseball-phobe became the first artist to play Dodger Stadium since the Beatles nearly a decade earlier. And photographer Terry O’Neill was right there for all of it. The photos that resulted from O’Neill’s deep access are now being brought together in the book Two Days That Rocked the World, from which the images above are drawn. Elton John was obviously a major star before the concerts took place—hence the legions of fans, and his appearance on the cover of TIME shortly before—but those days would come to be considered by many fans to be peak Elton.
How much did the spangled Dodger uniform, designed by Bob Mackie, cost? “Two thousand,” Elton was quoted by TIME as quipping. “But that’s just a ballpark figure.”

Two Days That Rocked the World will be available Oct. 30 at bookstores and online.
Read TIME’s cover story about Elton John from the summer of 1975, here in the TIME Vault: Rock’s Captain Fantastic
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