How Jeff Lynne’s Critical Father Inspired the Creation of ELO’s First US Top 40 Hit in 1975

The Electric Light Orchestra developed into one of the consistently successful rock acts of the 70s and 80s in terms of their ability to cross over to the pop charts. But it took them a while to get to that level, at least in America.

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The turning point song came when songwriter Jeff Lynne combined his artistic ambitions with his pop smarts. And he owed the song, in part, to his father’s doubts about Jeff’s music.

On The Move

ELO was initially supposed to be a side project of sorts for Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne from their day-job band, The Move. The two men wanted to use the new band to explore the idea of adding orchestral touches to rock and roll structures. In 1972, The Electric Light Orchestra album demonstrated a team effort between the two men in terms of songwriting.

But Wood didn’t stick around for much longer after that. And The Move had run its course as well. That left Lynne alone in charge of ELO as his full focus. On ELO 2, released in 1973, Lynne pushed the band’s style in a progressive direction. The album featured just five songs, all at elongated lengths.

On The Third Day arrived next. While the first three albums all contained songs that did well in Great Britain, with “10538 Overture” and “Roll Over Beethoven” both reaching the Top 10, ELO couldn’t quite get any of their singles to land in the United States. That would change with their fourth album, perhaps their most ambitious undertaking to date.

Hear This, Dad

Since the band had already been dealing with multi-song suites on their first few albums, Lynne decided they’d go whole hog on their next release and come up with a concept album. All the songs on Eldorado, released in 1974, are connected to the same theme, that of an ordinary man lost in a dream world.

On top of that, Lynne also made the decision to work with a real orchestra for the first time on the record. Past ELO albums had featured the band’s string players doing their parts, which Lynne, as producer, then multitracked to fill out the sound. On Eldorado, he wanted the sweep to be organic rather than fabricated.

Part of Lynne’s impetus for creating Eldorado was that he wanted to prove something to his father. Like many dads out there, Philip Lynne just didn’t understand his son’s music. His specific criticism was that the rock and roll that Jeff made with The Move and ELO lacked a proper melody.

“Head” Games

For the first single and the first full song on the record (after the brief “Eldorado Overture”), Lynne went all-in on the tune. The song was called “Can’t Get It Out Of My Head”. It sets up the story, introducing a bank teller who’s obsessed with visions of a mysterious woman who comes to him in his dreams.

With the full orchestra in effect behind him, Lynne sings a gorgeous melody. It’s doubtful that his father could have missed it. If anything, the song gets more and more powerful as it progresses, with Lynne adding more and more backing vocals on the track as it progresses.

“Can’t Get It Out Of My Head” couldn’t be denied by US radio. The song not only gave ELO its first Top 40 hit in America, but it also kept on going until it peaked at No. 9. Who knows if Philip Lynne approved? But we do know that the song was the first of many smashes in America for his son’s band.

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