I always believed that if the Beatles took their Sgt. Pepper album and made a second one – and a third one – and a fourth one – in that same musical vein, they would morph into the Electric Light Orchestra.
And realistically, how cool was it that a rock band calling themselves an “Orchestra” would have true orchestral musical instruments in their lineup. I mean, any rock guitarist can toss a guitar in the air during a show and catch it – these guys used to toss a cello in the air and catch it!
Electric Light Orchestra should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Why aren’t they yet? Who knows? But with the ten clips I’m offering today, perhaps you can see why this group deserves consideration for enshrinement.
ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN
Of course they’re covering the Chuck Berry classic, but since they’re doing that, why not add in the opening movement from Beethoven’s 5th Symphony? Makes sense to me…
EVIL WOMAN
There’s a song by the Pussycat Dolls called “Beep,” which cops one of the sections of “Evil Woman” as its own. There should be a law against anybody in one of those “lingerie groups” ever borrowing ANYTHING from the Electric Light Orchestra.
DO YA
This was originally recorded by ELO frontman Jeff Lynne’s earlier band, The Move. I like this version much more.
TURN TO STONE
God, how many times did I hear this song on WPTR and WTRY and Rock 99? Not enough times.
LIVIN’ THING
I should mention that Electric Light Orchestra’s mid-70’s pop hits had a tendency to be full of mondegreens – as in, you heard one set of lyrics, but the true lyrics were something else. I still don’t think I’ve got the complete lyrics for this song … but I’m working on it.
DON’T BRING ME DOWN
Although I do know that they’re definitely singing, “Don’t bring me down… Bruce!” Not sure who Bruce is… but it sure sounds like a snake in the grass… one of these days you’re going to break your glass…
ALL OVER THE WORLD
There was once a film called Xanadu. It starred Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly. And it was awful. Twenty levels of awful. Except for this song. Sorry… just partial to this group.
CAN’T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD
Any song that can reference Robin Hood and William Tell and Ivanhoe and Sir Lancelot – and can still hit the Top 10 in America – deserves a heckuva lot of praise. I should note that you may have to turn up your volume to hear this YouTube clip, it’s kinda faint.
HOLD ON TIGHT
And now, we get the bilingual pop song. As much as I like this song, this track was one of the first signs that the Electric Light Orchestra were on a downswing. After this, I had to deal with “Rock and Roll Is King,” the first ELO song that made me change the radio station every time I heard it. Urgh. They should have stopped with this song.
CALLING AMERICA
Of course, three years after that, they had their last Top 40 hit, this nice little bit of pop called “Calling America.” But by this time, Jeff Lynne was working on a solo album, producing George Harrison and Roy Orbison, working on the Traveling Wilburys, and eventually producing a couple of tracks for the surviving Beatles on their Anthology series.
So come on, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame… how can it be a true Rock and Roll Hall of Fame if you don’t have the Electric Light Orchestra in it?
Chuck The Writer 
I’d rather see the Move in the Hall of Fame. The last incarnation of Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan was also the original ELO. The Move was never popular enough in the US, though. Check out the albums Shazam and Message From The Country. Roy Wood, as well as Lynne and Bevan belong in the Hall on merit alone.
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Loved seeing this post today. Can’t wait to get home and fire up all my ELO albums.
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LOVE ELO! And your post made me realize I am missing Calling America from my I-pod. Taking steps to rectify that now….
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An episode of Doctor Who referenced ‘Mr Blue Sky’. That’s all it took to turn my kids into ELO fans.
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Love love love ELO!!! Do you think we can start a write-in campaign?
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@ the other Naomi – That is one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes…Nothing but ELO throughout the episode. Love and Monsters was the episode.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_%26_Monsters
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ELO: Sure, other bands have used string arrangements for years, but we have frikkin’ LASERS! This is the 70s, you’re going to love our lasers.
My iTunes has 24 versions of Do Ya (long story,) some of them fantastic, a couple of them rubbish (how do you mess up a perfect song?) I think it’s a validation when someone who is themselves a great songwriter, like Matthew Sweet or Todd Rundgren, thinks that a song is so great that they want to own it themselves for a few minutes. But my favorite stands as the original by The Move.
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