It couldn't possibly have lived up to the hype -- nay, the mass hysteria -- that preceded it, but Elton John's sold-out performance at the Corel Centre last night no doubt left the 16,000 or so fans in attendance delirious with delight.

They came to hear the hits, and John was happy to oblige, rattling off a generous helping of singles spanning his entire 30-year, career.

"We're going to do some old songs tonight," the diminutive piano man announced early in the concert to a blast of approval from the pumped-up, largely middle-aged crowd.

"We're going to do some fairly old songs, we're going to do some recent songs, and we're going to do some new songs."

But not too many, and therein perhaps lies the secret of John's enduring appeal.

"I definitely want to hear the old songs -- The Bitch Is Back, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," said longtime fan Laurie Weir, 39, before the concert.

Weir and her friend Joanne Love, 40, both grew up listening to John and came to the show, as Love put it, to hear songs "from high-school days."

"He just has great stage presence and I've always enjoyed his music," she said. "It's very upbeat, very lively."

"And," interjected Weir, "if you look around, it's a concert where there are people our age. You don't see that often."

John's first visit to the city in 15 years would have been a big deal on any occasion -- the Ottawa concert market has been awfully good in recent years to fellow long-in-the-tooth acts like Phil Collins, Supertramp and the Eagles.

But being on the periphery of two highly publicized, almost cinematically tragic, celebrity deaths in recent months has thrust the 50-year-old Rock-and-Roll Hall of Famer squarely back into a spotlight that he's never left, but which has nevertheless dimmed slightly over the course of his 30-year career.

His new record, the sombre The Big Picture, is dedicated to designer Gianni Versace, who was gunned down at the gates to his estate last spring.

And, as just about everyone on the planet is aware, John and songwriting partner Bernie Taupin rewrote their 1973 ballad Candle In The Wind for performance at Princess Diana's funeral before a global audience of billions.

Upon its release, Candle In The Wind 1997 -- with all proceeds (sales, composer and artists' royalties, performance income and record company profits) earmarked for the Princess Diana Memorial Fund -- took only a matter of weeks to become the biggest-selling single of all time.

More than 32 million people have scooped up copies of Candle 1997, propelling it ahead of the former sales champ: Bing Crosby's White Christmas, which has sold some 30 million copies since its release in 1942.

John has vowed never to perform the song again unless he's asked by Diana's children. And even though neither Prince William nor Prince Harry was in evidence at the Corel Centre last night, that didn't stop a few zealous fans from holding out hopes that this would be the one show where he made an exception.

"I want him to play the song he's not going to sing -- the tribute to Diana," said Joan Penney, 39, as she lingered by the T-shirt stand in the Corel Centre's lobby.

Fortunately for Penney -- who got ahold of her $70 ticket yesterday morning when Ticketmaster issued an extra block of 100 -- she had a second choice, Daniel. Not that it really mattered what John played, she added.

"He's got such a variety over the last 20 years," she said. "It's incredible. I loved him then and I still do now."

Enough people feel that way about John, apparently, to have gobbled up all the tickets a mere 98 minutes after they went on sale Sept. 30.

That made it a seller's market for scalped tickets last night. The desperate fans roaming about the grounds with "Two tickets wanted" signs far outnumbered the people who actually had two tickets for sale, although at least one scalper was peddling floor seats at $200 apiece.

"I'm willing to pay $200 for two tickets," said Manon Desgenis, 29, huddling against the cold outside before the show in an unsuccessful attempt to locate a pair of passes. "I was hoping to get some after 8 p.m. They're usually cheaper once the show starts."

Her decision to come was a last-minute one, she admitted.

"I just decided I wanted to come tonight," she said. "I just like his music -- it's not too heavy, it's not too extreme. It's just good."

The last time the former Reginald Dwight was here -- on July 30, 1982 -- he performed before nearly 9,000 fans at the Ottawa Civic Centre in a garish, pseudo-nautical uniform.

But the Rocket Man began scaling back on his flamboyant, over-the-top showmanship a few years ago when he started feeling "a little ridiculous."

Thus, there were no powdered wigs, no sparkling platform shoes, no 20-foot-wide sunglasses and (mercifully) no giant duck suits this time out.

Instead, John -- decked out in an understated (by his standards) red suit and black shirt -- appeared at his grand piano beneath glaring white lights on a wide, black stage adorned only with a few curved, metallic dividers. His slick, seven-piece backing band built the noise up to a tasteful crescendo and he launched into, appropriately enough, an uplifting version of Simple Life.

Following that up with a sweeping reading of the ballad The One, John established the simple (that word again), yet winning, formula that carried him through the show: One rousing number from his catalogue of hits (Honky Cat, I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That), one epic ballad (Can You Feel The Love Tonight, Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me), then back again.

In keeping with that "I-aim-to-please" attitude, the open setup provided a clear enough view of the stage from almost every seat in the entire oval-shaped arena.

There wasn't a great deal to see, mind you. Apart from some periodic tours of the set to wave at the adoring crowd, most of the fireworks on John's end took place on the keyboard (his manic solo on I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That, for instance) -- and unless you were one of the handful of people sitting on the floor directly in front of him you didn't catch those.

At least not visually. Fortunately, John and the band brought with them a lavish sound system that rendered every tune with glossy, greatest-hits package quality.

Essentially, there's one reason why everyone had a great time -- the same reason why John has had top-40 singles for 28 straight years and sold some 100 million records (putting him in league with the Beatles and Elvis Presley): He's a crowd pleaser.

He doesn't bellyache about playing his best-known songs. He's good-natured -- he dedicated Tiny Dancer to a couple of "old friends" from Toronto who drove up to celebrate their 16th wedding anniversary at the show, for example -- and he still seems to be having a good time doing the same thing he's been doing for the past 30 years.

And his heart seems to be in the right place, too. There's the whole Diana thing (he didn't play Candle, for the record, although he did whip through the single's flipside, the soulful Something About The Way You Look Tonight), but there's also his seemingly tireless dedication to the fight against AIDS. And sure enough, he took a quiet moment alone at the piano to send out The Last Song to "all men, women and children living with HIV and AIDS."

How can you fault a guy like that?

He's not too heavy, some might say, not too extreme. Just good.

JAM! Rating: 3.5 out of 5