Growing up in the Seventies, I have rather vivid memories of my sister playing records to me. She's six years older than me and so she had a record collection while I was still dreaming of having one, one day. 'Mr. Blue Sky' was one of the songs she played a lot back in 1978, when it was in the charts. Ten years later I bought a copy of the single, and twenty years after that I bought the album 'Out of the blue' which is quite a fascinating album.
'The way life's meant to be' was the last single to be released from Electric Light Orchestra's 1981 album 'Time'. The song starts with gentle violins, and continues with flamenco-like guitar playing, and castanets. The south Mediterranean sound continues throughout the vocal and choiring on the refrain.
'Don't walk away' was released in 1980 as the fourth single from the soundtrack of the movie 'Xanadu'. Electric Light Orchestra may have been the only party to really profit from this movie, as it was not a commercial success, but the singles did fare reasonably well in the charts.
Jeff Lynne spent two weeks writing songs in Switzerland in 1977 for Electric Light Orchestra's double album 'Out of the blue'. One of the results was this song, 'Turn to stone', which became the opening track for the album. It was also released as the first single from the album.
'Rockaria!' was the second single from Electric Light Orchestra's 1976 album 'A new world record'. The track features the operatic voice of Mary Thomas during the introduction. She flubbed the first take by starting the vocals too early. However, Jeff Lynne elected to use the take (complete with her interjection, 'Oops!') anyway.
First released on Electric Light Orchestra's fourth album 'Eldorado' in July 1974, 'Can't get it out of my head' was relased as a single in November 1974.
'All over the world' is taken from the soundtrack of the movie 'Xanadu' (1980) featuring Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly, and Michael Beck. The song also appears on the soundtrack album and was released as the second single from that album in 1980.
According to Jeff Lynne, 'The diary of Horace Wimp' is 'a song about a lucky lad who somehow defies the odds and gets the girl. Really wild use of the vocoder.' Originally released on the album 'Discovery' (1979) by the Electric Light Orchestra, it was subsequently released as a single.
'Confusion' was released as a double A-side single with 'Last train to London' in the UK and Ireland, whereas the two tracks were released as separate singles in other territories. Thanks to this fact, we can conclude that 'Confusion' was actually the better selling of the two, since it was a top 10 hit in four other countries, in contrast to 'Last train to London', which only reached the top 10 in France. Meanwhile, the double A-side single reached number 8 in the UK and number 9 in Ireland.
A common mondegreen in this song is the perception that, following the title line, Jeff Lynne shouts 'Bruce!' However, he is actually saying a made-up word 'Grroosss'. After the song's release, so many people had misinterpreted the word as Bruce that Jeff Lynne actually began to sing the word as Bruce for fun at live shows.
'Sweet talkin' woman' was originally named 'Dead end street', but the name changed to avoid confusion with a 1966 hit of the same title by the Kinks. Some words that survived from that version can be heard in the opening of the third verse, 'I've been livin' on a dead end street'. It was recorded on ELO's 1978 album 'Out of the blue' and released as the fourth single from the album.
I haven't heard 'Mr. Blue Sky' in a long time, but when I played it today, I got that same feeling I've had so many times when I hear this song: goosebumps all over. Can you imagine a track like this in the charts today? Can you even imagine a track like this being recorded, with full orchestra, a choir and everything else?
In December 1978, the ELO EP was released in the UK only, to promote the three LP box set 'Three Light Years'. The box set contained three recent albums by the band: 'On the third day' (1973), 'Eldorado' (1974) and 'Face the music' (1975).
'Hold on tight' was the first single to be released from ELO's 1981 album 'Time' and was their last top 10 hit in the UK, reaching number 4 in the summer of 1981. In the Netherlands, where the single reached number 5, they would have one more top 10 hit single with 'Rock and roll is king' in 1983.
'Livin' thing' was written by Jeff Lynne and appears on ELO's 1976 platinum-selling album 'A New World Record'. In the UK and Canada the single peaked at number 4, whereas in the Netherlands ELO scored their first top 10 hit with this, peaking at number 6. According to 'Unzipped', Suzi Quatro's autobiography, her sister Patti sang uncredited backing vocals on the track, particularly the 'higher and higher' parts.
After the 1983 album 'Secret messages' was not very successful, the Electric Light Orchestra effectively disbanded. However, Jeff Lynne was contractually obligated to deliver one more album to CBS Records, and so 'Balance of power' was released in 1986. The sound of this album was very different from the sound that had made the band so popular in the Seventies. There were no strings, just synthesizers, and the whole album kindof lacked the 'soul' previous albums had.
Electric Light Orchestra released 'Ticket to the moon' and 'Here is the news', two tracks from their 1981 album 'Time', as a single with two A-sides. The former is a beautiful ballad packed with strings and a grand piano. The latter is an uptempo track with lots of synthesizers and a lively background of news reports. The single peaked at number 24 in the UK, but did not chart elsewhere in Europe.
'Xanadu' was the theme song from the movie of the same name. The movie starred Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly and was an unofficial remake of the 1947 film 'Down to earth' with Rita Hayworth.
Taken from the soundtrack of the movie Xanadu, this track by Electric Light Orchestra sound kindof familiar. It is almost a pastiche of earlier Electric Light Orchestra tracks. It was the second single taken from the soundtrack, after the title track 'Xanadu' (with Olivia Newton-John) had been a big hit all over Europe. By comparison, this single fared less well.
