THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

25-Electric Light Orchestra-Mr. Blue Sky.

1978-Number 6 single.

Best Bit-At 3.46. At the very end of the song there are four spoken words. A lot of people (including me for many years) thought that what is said is ‘Mister Blue Sky,’ but in recent years Jeff Lynne has confirmed that what actually is spoken is ‘please turn me over.’

In October 1977 the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) (see also best songs 970) released their seventh studio Album, the double Album ‘Out of the Blue,’ which has gone on to be their best seller with around 10 million copies sold worldwide. A double Album was two 12 inch vinyl discs with music on all sides, initial copies were issued on blue vinyl. Side 3 of the Album is subtitled ‘Concerto for a Rainy Day,’ which is a four-track musical suite based on the weather and how it affects mood change, ending with the eventual sunshine and happiness of “Mr. Blue Sky,’ with the request at the end of the song to flip the disc over and listen to side 4.

Mr. Blue Sky’ was written and produced by Jeff Lynne who has explained how he came about writing the song after locking himself away in a chalet in Switzerland in an attempt to get inspiration.’It was dark and misty for two weeks, and I didn’t come up with a thing. Suddenly the sun shone and it was, ‘Wow, look at those beautiful Alps.’ I wrote ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ and 13 other songs in the next two weeks.’ Lynne has also gone on to say,’It captured what my vision of ELO was all about. All the bits that come in and out, the backing vocals, the cellos sliding, all the little naughty bits, the sound effects, everything is exactly what I imagined ELO to be.’ The arrangement on ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ has been called ‘Beatlesque,’ with Jeff Lynne readily admitting the debt he owes the Beatles, a group he was heavily influenced by in the late 1960’s. The songs piano and drum intro is borrowed from the Kinks’ 1968 song “Do You Remember Walter,’ written by Ray Davies.

Jeffrey Lynne (see also best songs 970 and 769) was born on December 30th, 1947, in Birmingham, England, he began his music career in 1963 as a member of the local Birmingham band the ‘Andicaps,’ then joining the ‘Chads, before forming and writing for ‘The Idle Race’ between 1966-1970. He next accepted an offer from Roy Wood (see also best songs 821 and 239) to join the already very successful British Rock band the ‘Move’ (see also best songs 575) in 1969, before both left to form the ‘Electric Light Orchestra’ in 1970 Following Roy Wood’s departure in 1972 Jeff Lynne assumed sole leadership of the band and wrote, arranged, and produced virtually all of its subsequent records.

After the ‘ELO’ split in 1986, Jeff Lynn went on to co-found the ‘supergroup’ the ‘Traveling Wilburys’ in 1988 under the pseudonyms of ‘Otis Wilbury,’ and Clayton Wilbury,’ along with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, (1943-2001) Roy Orbison, (1936-1998) and Tom Petty (1950-2017.) In 1994 Jeff Lynne was asked by the three surviving Beatles to work with them on their anthology Album series, Lynne was asked to assist with unreleased studio material originally recorded by the late John Lennon (1940-1980.) Jeff Lynne has an impressive list of production work away from the ‘ELO,’ including for Paul McCartney, (Flaming Pie 1997) George Harrison, (Cloud Nine 1987) and Tom Petty, (Full Moon Fever 1989) amongst many others. Lynne has also released two solo studio Albums in 1990, and 2012, and three singles were issued from those Albums.

The discography of the Electric Light Orchestra includes 15 studio Albums released between 1971-2019, and 50 singles issued between 1972-2019. In the UK, 26 of those singles have made the top 40 with ‘Xanadu’ from 1980 featuring Olivia Newton John (1948-2022) making the Number 1 spot. In America on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, 20 of their songs have made the top 40 with ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’ charting the highest at Number 4 in 1979. No act has had more top 40 hits on Billboard than the ‘ELO,’ without having had a Number 1 single in that charts history.

‘Hey you with the pretty face welcome to the human race. A celebration, Mr. Blue Sky’s up there waitin,’ and today is the day we’ve waited for.’