50 Fun Facts About Electric Light Orchestra

Which ELO song is the opening track of Awesome Mix Vol. 2, the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 soundtrack?

Mr. Blue Sky first appeared in 1977 as the last part of Concerto for a Rainy Day, a four-song suite about the weather. The suite fills side three of the double album Out of the Blue.

ELO's debut album got which accidental US title after a label caller failed to reach the band's contact?

No Answer was only the caller's note about the failed phone call, which the US label then took for the album's name. In Britain the record kept its real title, The Electric Light Orchestra.

ELO's 1974 concept album Eldorado, about a daydreamer's fantasy worlds, has a cover still from which classic film?

The Wizard of Oz still shows Dorothy's ruby slippers with the Wicked Witch's hands reaching for them. Eldorado was also the first ELO album made with a hired orchestra.

ELO's Roll Over Beethoven, which opens with a blast of the Fifth Symphony, was first recorded by which rock pioneer?

Chuck Berry wrote and released the song in 1956. ELO stretched it into an eight-minute epic that threads passages of Beethoven's symphony through his riffs.

ELO wrote half the songs for which 1980 roller-skating movie musical starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly?

Xanadu disappointed at the box office, yet its title song, sung by Newton-John with the band, became ELO's only UK number-one single.

ELO leader Jeff Lynne took the alias Otis in which 1980s supergroup of fictional half-brothers, alongside Bob Dylan?

Traveling Wilburys formed in Los Angeles in 1988, and every member took a Wilbury pseudonym, with Dylan billed as Lucky.

ELO's Jeff Lynne co-produced Cloud Nine, a 1987 comeback album featuring Got My Mind Set on You, for which star?

George Harrison had gone five years without a solo album when he asked Lynne to produce with him. The partnership soon grew into a band of five famous friends.

Which 1979 ELO hit, the band's biggest US single, was their first song recorded without any strings?

Don't Bring Me Down runs on a pounding drum loop instead and reached number four in America. ELO dedicated it to Skylab, the space station that fell to Earth that summer.

ELO formed in 1970 in which English city, also the birthplace of Black Sabbath and Duran Duran?

Birmingham stayed home turf: ELO played the Heart Beat 86 charity concert there in March 1986, only months before the original band quietly broke up.

Which rock legend praised ELO's Showdown on American radio in 1974 and dubbed the band the Son of Beatles?

John Lennon made the remark in a radio interview, adding that he had expected Showdown to be a number one.

ELO's 1981 hit Hold On Tight repeats its first verse in which other language?

French aside, Americans came to know the single as the theme of the National Coffee Association's Coffee Achievers TV adverts of 1983 and 1984.

ELO's 1970s line-up was unusual for a rock band because it carried a violinist and two players of which instrument?

Cello players Hugh McDowell and Melvyn Gale and violinist Mik Kaminski were all dismissed in January 1980, when Jeff Lynne wanted a more modern sound.

On ELO's 1978 world tour, the band played inside a hugely expensive stage set with lasers, built to look like what?

A spaceship that opened up to reveal the band, the set was so costly and slow to rig that it appeared at only about every other show; the rest used a normal stage.

ELO co-founder Roy Wood quit during work on the second album to form which glam rock band, known for a Christmas hit?

Wizzard took two more ELO players along, and its 1973 single I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday became an annual fixture on British radio.

Jeff Lynne's ELO played the main stage on the closing Sunday in June 2016 at which English music festival?

Glastonbury put the band on its Pyramid Stage on 26 June 2016, one stop on a 19-date European tour by the revived group.

Jeff Lynne relaunched ELO in September 2014 with a sold-out BBC Radio 2 concert at which outdoor London venue?

Hyde Park's 50,000 tickets went in 15 minutes. The show was billed as Jeff Lynne's ELO to set it apart from offshoot bands trading on the old name.

Which ballad from ELO's 1976 album A New World Record opens with a Moog copy of an American ringing tone?

Telephone Line got its intro when the band rang a US number they knew nobody would pick up, listened, then tuned the Moog's oscillators to the same notes.

Which 1975 ELO hit did Jeff Lynne write in minutes because Face the Music still lacked a strong single?

Evil Woman was the quickest thing Lynne said he had ever written, yet it became the band's first worldwide hit.

ELO's Jeff Lynne co-wrote Free Fallin' and produced Full Moon Fever with which American rocker?

Tom Petty and Lynne wrote and recorded Free Fallin' in two days, making it the first song finished for Full Moon Fever. It reached number seven in America.

ELO's Livin' Thing plays over the final scene and end credits of which 1997 Paul Thomas Anderson film?

Boogie Nights nearly lost the song: Jeff Lynne refused the rights at first, then changed his mind after watching a screening with the director.

ELO is the favourite band of Elton Pope, the fan at the centre of a 2006 episode of which British sci-fi series?

Doctor Who's Love & Monsters plays three ELO hits as Elton and his friends, a club of ordinary Londoners, try to track down the Tenth Doctor.

ELO's Last Train to London was reworked into Be with You, a 2002 UK hit for which girl group?

Atomic Kitten's single sampled the song's hook, so Jeff Lynne picked up a songwriting credit on a girl-group record that reached number two in Britain.

ELO's The Diary of Horace Wimp follows its hero through the week but skips which day?

Saturday is left out because, as Jeff Lynne explained, that is when the football match is played. The Beatlesque single made the UK top ten in 1979.

ELO's 1977 double album helped to popularise which robotic-voice effect, used heavily across its songs?

Vocoder voices crop up through the album. One sings the intro of Big Wheels, and another ends Mr. Blue Sky by asking the listener to turn the record over.

Which 1979 ELO album, home to Shine a Little Love and Last Train to London, was the band's first UK number one?

Discovery entered the UK chart at the top and stayed for five weeks. Its back cover shows comedian Brad Garrett, in one of his earliest jobs, as a palace guard drawing a scimitar.

Which 1983 ELO album carried a mock warning notice on its British back cover?

Secret Messages warned of backward messages on its sleeve, Jeff Lynne's tongue-in-cheek reply to claims of hidden Satanic content, and the record is laced with deliberately backmasked phrases.

Jeff Lynne wrote ELO's 1977 double album in three and a half weeks at a rented chalet in which country?

Switzerland gave him two weeks of mist and not a single idea; then the sun came out over the Alps and the songs arrived in a rush.

From 1975's Face the Music onward, ELO made most of its albums at Musicland Studios in which German city?

Munich's Musicland was set up by disco producer Giorgio Moroder in the basement of a tower block, and Deep Purple recommended it to the band.

Which founding ELO member drummed for Black Sabbath on the 1983 Born Again tour?

Bev Bevan stepped in for Bill Ward, and a headline set at the 1983 Reading Festival was only his second gig with the heavy metal band.

Which manager, the father of Sharon Osbourne, guided ELO's career and founded the band's label Jet Records?

Don Arden's aggressive, sometimes illegal business tactics earned him nicknames such as Mr Big and the Al Capone of Pop.

Which English singer-songwriter joined Jeff Lynne's ELO on stage at the 2015 Grammy Awards?

Ed Sheeran introduced them as a man and a band he loves, then sang along on a two-song medley. It was the first time ELO had ever played the Grammys.

ELO's Jeff Lynne co-wrote and produced You Got It, a posthumous 1989 hit for which singer?

Roy Orbison died in December 1988, weeks before the single came out. It took him back into the US top ten for the first time in 25 years.

Which famous drummer was a guest musician on ELO's 2001 comeback album Zoom?

Ringo Starr guested on a record Jeff Lynne made mostly alone. It was the first ELO album since 1986, and the first without the band's original drummer.

During the 1978 world tour, ELO sold out eight nights in June at which London venue?

Wembley Arena's eight sold-out nights broke the venue's attendance records. In 2017 Jeff Lynne's ELO drew 60,000 to Wembley Stadium for a single show.

ELO's logo was created in 1976 by John Kosh, the art director behind which 1969 Beatles album cover?

Abbey Road was a Kosh sleeve from his days as creative director at the Beatles' company Apple. His ELO logo made its debut on A New World Record.

ELO began as a side project of which band, whose Flowers in the Rain launched BBC Radio 1 in 1967?

The Move even recorded one more album to help finance the fledgling orchestra project, before its three core members switched over for good.

ELO's 1981 concept album Time follows a man from the 1980s who is carried off to where?

The future he lands in is the year 2095, where he longs for the romance of the past. The album topped the UK chart for two weeks.

Jeff Lynne's 2013 set at a televised concert for which British charity paved the way for ELO's comeback?

Children in Need Rocks reunited Lynne with his old keyboard player for two songs, and its success led to a full comeback concert ten months later.

At the 2014 comeback concert, Jeff Lynne's ELO was backed by the touring band of which British pop group?

Take That's musicians, led by Mike Stevens, shared the stage with the BBC Concert Orchestra, as they had at a charity show with Lynne the year before.

ELO's string conductor Louis Clark led the Royal Philharmonic on which 1981 hit album of disco-beat orchestral medleys?

Hooked on Classics spun off a single of the same name that reached number two in Britain and the US top ten. Clark had arranged and conducted the orchestra and choir behind ELO since Eldorado.

ELO's first single, 10538 Overture, tells the story of which kind of character, known only by a number?

An escaped prisoner needed a number rather than a name, so by Roy Wood's account the pair borrowed 1053 from the studio's mixing console and added an 8 later.

Which rocker on ELO's A New World Record was a remake of a 1972 song by Jeff Lynne's previous group?

Do Ya began as a B-side that American radio preferred to its A-side, giving Lynne's old band its only US chart entry at number 93. ELO's remake was a hit in 1977.

Which ELO keyboard player first joined on bass in 1971 and rejoined Jeff Lynne for the 2014 comeback?

Richard Tandy was Lynne's right-hand man in the studio and co-arranged the strings on the classic albums. He died in 2024.

Which glam rock idol played twin lead guitar with Jeff Lynne on ELO's Ma-Ma-Ma Belle?

Marc Bolan, the T. Rex frontman, sat in on ELO's April 1973 sessions and features on several takes, including Dreaming of 4000.

Before teaming up with Roy Wood in 1970, ELO's Jeff Lynne was chief songwriter for which cult 1960s band?

The Idle Race had a cult following but never enjoyed mass commercial success. Its roots lay in a 1959 outfit called the Nightriders.

Which mostly instrumental ELO track, the opener of Face the Music, became the theme of CBS Sports Spectacular?

Fire on High opens with a spooky voice played in reverse, Jeff Lynne's tongue-in-cheek reply to people who claimed his earlier records hid such things.

Which 2019 album by Jeff Lynne's ELO, the band's fourteenth studio set, reached number one on the UK chart?

From Out of Nowhere was meant to be followed by a tour starting in October 2020, but the pandemic forced its cancellation.

Which song from ELO's 1981 album Time was borrowed, without permission, for Japan's Daicon IV convention animation?

Twilight scored the 1983 fan-made film in Osaka, and the 2005 Japanese TV series Train Man used it as an opening theme in homage.

ELO's regular 1970s engineer Reinhold Mack went on to co-produce The Game with which band?

Queen and Mack earned a Grammy nomination for Producer of the Year for the album. He had first worked with ELO on Face the Music in 1975.

ELO entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 in the same class as which Seattle grunge band?

Pearl Jam got in during its first year of eligibility. ELO was elected on its first nomination, with four members honoured, among them Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood.