Jeff Lynne – 20 Reasons To Love Jeff Lynne

Now Jeff Lynne is someone who has been involved in creating some of the world’s best known songs and he has worked with various musicians such as Tom Petty, Bryan Adams, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison and countless others. He has contributed his musical magic as a performer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, singer, composer and record producer. Here we present some of our choices of some recordings which Jeff Lynne has been involved in:

Jeff Lynne’s ELO – When I Was A Boy

When I Was A Boy is a track from Jeff Lynne’s ELO new album ‘Alone In The Universe’ which was released in November 2015. It has echoes of his work with The Beatles and reminds me of Paul McCartney as Jeff Lynne sings about his childhood and his love of music. It is a song that showcases both the classic Electric Light Orchestra sound that people know and love but also a fresh approach which can clearly be heard on this new release.

Travelling Wilburys – Handle With Care
A supergroup worthy of the title. And ego’s appeared to have been left at the door as the five muso’s created an old-fashioned guitar rock’n’roll sound using material probably not suited to their own regular bands. Originally planned to include the late Del Shannon – whose Petty and Campbell-aided album is well worth a listen – the five lined up as Lynn, Dylan, Petty, Orbison and some bloke called Harrison. Toting Gretsch guitars and benefiting from Jeff’s Abbey Road-soaked production senses, the outfit gained a big and worldwide radio hit with this melodic toe-tapper.  Best of all, being on these sessions looked like FUN.

Traveling Wilburys – Tweeter and The Monkey Man

Dylan leads the way with this strange tale of skullduggery: Lynne’s production gives just enough edge to propel the story along with the richness of the instrumentation warm and clear. Bob sounds enthused and comfortable. It’s a good example of a studio creation with a life of its own.

Traveling Wilburys – End Of The Line

End Of The Line is the last track on Traveling Wilburys first album ‘Volume 1’ which was released in 1989. The song has a ‘riding the rails’ vibe about it. It features all of The Wilburys as lead singers except Bob Dylan and although it is uptempo it is actually quite a sad song. When it was released as the second single from the album it peaked at #63 in the Billboard 100 Chart.

When the music video was filmed (after Roy Orbison’s death in December 1988) they decided to honor the loss of their fellow musician and friend by having a shot of of a guitar sitting in a rocking chair next to a photo of Orbison was used when Orbison’s vocals are heard. It is an incredibly sombre and emotional video which captures the magic of Traveling Wilburys beautifully.

Electric Light Orchestra – Evil Woman

Jeff Lynne wrote Evil Woman and after its release in 1975 it became ELO’s first worldwide hit. It is one of the rare songs where there is no language or cultural barrier as it were; men and women around the world can relate to this song’s lyrics. Lynne said it was ‘the quickest song he’d ever written’. It took thirty minutes to write and Lynne re-recorded the song in his home studio.

Part of the song was sampled by The Pussycat Dolls for their 2006 song ‘Beep’.

Jeff Lynne performed this song at The 57th Grammy Awards in 2015 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in a set which also featured a duet of ‘Mr Blue Sky’ with Ed Sheeran.

Electric Light Orchestra & Olivia Newton John – Xanadu

Xanadu is the title track to the 1980 musical film of the same name. The film was a critical and commercial disappointment but the soundtrack was incredibly successful around the world with it receiving double-platinum status in the US and Canada. All of the songs on side two of the Xanadu soundtrack were written by Jeff Lynne and performed by ELO. It was one of the rare collaborations for ELO and the song has been covered by Danni Minogue and Sharleen Spiteri.

Xanadu was the first song beginning with the letter ‘X’ to ever chart on the Billboard Hot 100 and it remained the only one until 2000’s “X” by Xzibit.

Electric Light Orchestra – Telephone Line

No the thing about Telephone Line is that this song wouldn’t have made as much impact if it had been released say in 2014-15, not because it isn’t a good song but rather because everyone nowadays has a mobile phone so the intimacy of receiving an upsetting call on the home telephone is slowly fading away. The vocal harmonies are stunning and the song is incredibly catchy.

Bryan Adams – Brand New Day

This is from Canadian rocker Bryan Adams and his latest album ‘Get Up!’ which is produced by Jeff Lynne. The album was recorded sporadically between March 2013 and May 2015 whenever Adams and Lynne had time and they worked on it one track at a time. It suits Bryan Adams’s voice perfectly and the sound goes back to the style of Adams’s previous releases in particular ‘Summer of 69’. Bryan Adams was in the audience when Jeff Lynne made his live comeback at BBC Radio 2 Festival In A Day in September 2014 to 50,000 people at Hyde Park in London.

Electric Light Orchestra – Don’t Bring Me Down

The tune of this song is iconic and puts a smile on your face when the made-up lyric ‘Grosss!’ kicks in. It is ELO’s highest charting hit in the US to date. So many people misheard the lyric as ‘Bruce’ that Lynne started singing it at live shows for a laugh. Also, although ELO were know for their rich string sound, Don’t Bring Me Down was the first song of theirs to not include a string section.

Roy Orbison – You Got It

This track is taken from Roy Orbison’s album ‘Mystery Girl’ which was released on the Virgin label in 1989. it was co-written by Orbison, Lynne and Tom Petty who are also part of The Traveling Wilburys. This was Orbison’s last album and it became a worldwide hit and reached #5 on The US Billboard 200 and #2 on the UK Albums Chart. Not only did Jeff Lynne contribute to the production of the album but on ‘You Got It’ he showcased his skills as a multi-instrumentalist and played electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, piano, bass and backing vocals.

It was also Roy Orbison’s only solo Top 10 hit on the Hot Country Songs charts, peaking at #7.

Joe Cocker – Night Calls

This song was written and produced by Jeff Lynne for the late Joe Cocker and featured on his thirteenth studio album of the same name. The album featured songs written by various music legends such as Sir Elton John, Bernie Taupin, Prince, Bryan Adams, Tony Joe White, Steve Winwood as well as Paul Rodgers, Andy Fraser, Paul Kossoff and Simon Kirke of the UK band Free. Cocker’s classic raspy vocals blend beautifully with Lynne’s production and his contribution really added to this track.

Electric Light Orchestra – All Over The World

Now this song makes me think of a time when we have world peace in some shape or form because the lyrics list off several famous capital cities as well as Shard End which is the suburb of Birmingham where Lynne grew up. The swirly string section as you hear ‘there’s going to be a party all over the world!’ Like when David Bowie and Mick Jagger did ‘Dancing In The Street’, it is a song that brings people together and it is difficult to not dance to!

Tom Petty – I Won’t Back Down

This is the first single from Tom Petty’s first solo album, ‘Full Moon Fever’ which was released in April 1989. Jeff Lynne was Petty’s writing partner on the album.

‘I Won’t Back Down’ has a steady chugging groove which puts its defiance  message over with steady power.

Jeff Lynne also played bass on the track alongside fellow Traveling Wilbury George Harrison who played acoustic guitar during the recording session, Howie Epstein on backing vocals, Phil Jones on drums and member of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers Mike Campbell who contributed both lead and slide guitar.

In terms of the track’s success, it reached #12 on The Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Album Rock Tracks chart for five weeks. This started the album’s road to multi-platinum status. It was also successful in the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and New Zealand.

It is an incredibly powerful song and its message  of defying the forces of evil resonates around the world. Following the September 11 attacks in 2001 American radio played the song often.

Interestingly, the music video for ‘I Won’t Back Down’ features Ringo Starr on drums but it was Phil Jones on the recording.

However, the song has also seen its share of controversy with George W. Bush using the track for his Presidential campaign in the year 2000 and then having to stop after receiving a cease and desist letter directly from Petty’s publisher.

Then in 2014 singer Sam Smith released his new single ‘Stay With Me’ to public and critical acclaim but it became apparent that the song had a likeness with the melody of ‘Won’t Back Down’. After Petty’s publisher made contact with Smith’s representatives, it was agreed in January 2015 that both Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne would receive credit as co-writers and a 12.5% songwriting credit.

The Beatles – Free As A Bird

Free As A Bird was originally composed and recorded as home demo by John Lennon in 1977. Then in 1995 it was recorded with contributions from George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr who released it a new single by The Beatles. Jeff Lynne was invited to co-produce the track after his work with George Harrison on the album ‘Cloud Nine’ as well as his time with Harrison in the Traveling Wilburys.

In terms of the track’s success, it sold 120,000 copies in its first week and entered the UK Singles Chart at number 2.

The Idle Race – Days Of The Broken Arrows

This 1969 Liberty label single features a trebly arpeggio’d guitar chord sequence before settling into a chugging BrumBeat groove with a sophisticated vocal arrangement and sound, with vague echoes of Brian Wilson.  The release made no impact. But Jeff was about to team up with Roy Wood….and in just a little while, a group called 10CC would be doing exactly this kind of music on Rubber Bullets etc!
Electric Light Orchestra – Turn To Stone
Turn To Stone was written by Lynne during his intense two-week writing marathon which took place in Switzerland. Released in 1977, Turn To Stone takes the music technique of call and response and mixes it with falsetto vocals and is one of the songs which defines the sub-genre of symphonic rock. The song reached #18 in the UK Singles Charts and spent twelve weeks in the chart. As of 4th November 2008, the track reached one-million airplays.
Electric Light Orchestra – Roll Over Beethoven
With UK pop radio beginning to turn away from beat-driven music, what a pleasure it was to hear a well-recorded electric guitar rock track on the airwaves. Albeit with surreal swipes from Ludwig himself. With one release a group with a fresh string-laden sound had arrived. Arguably ELO would never sound this wild and exciting again, but moved on to mine melodic MOR like few other outfits.
Electric Light Orchestra – Mr Blue Sky
Mr Blue Sky is one of ELO and Jeff Lynne’s best well-known songs and it featured on ELO’s album ‘Out Of The Blue’ which was released in 1977.  Jeff Lynne locked himself away in a Swiss chalet as he attempted to write songs for ELO’s follow up to their previous album ‘A New World Record’. Some people may have heard the song through popular science-fiction ‘Doctor Who’ which used several ELO songs for the episode ‘Love and Monsters’ in 2006. The song peaked at #6 in the UK Singles Chart and #35 in the US Chart.
Brian Wilson – Let It Shine
In July 1988, Brian Wilson released his debut self-titled  solo studio album and it was voted by NME as one of the best albums of the year. One of the tracks on the album ‘Let It Shine’ was co-written by Jeff Lynne who was a Wilson fan.
In 2015, Mojo Magazine asked Lynne about working with Wilson and he said ‘Him (Brian) playing piano and me strumming guitar and we came up with the song, ‘Let It Shine’. … Anyway, we got to the session and I played lots of the instruments: bass and rhythm guitar and keyboard, and he did some keyboard, and we co-produced. Despite our production backgrounds, there wasn’t a lot on it actually. It’s a nice tight-sounding record’. 
It is a vibrant and sunny record that warms your heart and has that Beach Boys feel about it.
 Prince, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood and others – While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Live at the 2004 Hall of Fame Inductions)
Now although this is a George Harrison classic, this was a very special moment in music history when two members of the supergroup Traveling Wilburys, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne perform a once in a lifetime version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps as part of the 2004 Hall of Fame Induction ceremony. Then you’ve also got Steve Winwood joining them as well and it is one of those moments of respect and remembrance when you simply say ‘Quite Right’. If that wasn’t enough Prince appears with an electric guitar and he is so into it that a member of security had to stop him from falling off the stage!
Unfortunately this has never been released a a recording for purchase but you can watch the live performance video here: 

Now this selection of songs is just a small collection of some of the material Jeff Lynne has worked on. It is not in a specific order or countdown and it is only the opinions of the Just Listen To This Team.

Written by Glenn Sargeant, Kieran White and Pete Sargeant

Jeff Lynne’s ELO’s latest album ‘Alone In The Universe’ is out now as a standard and Deluxe Edition on Big Trilby Records/Columbia Records/Sony Music.

In addition, Jeff Lynne’s ELO will be embarking on an extensive UK and European Arena Tour in 2016. For dates and more information visit: http://www.jefflynneselo.co/