Born on This Day in 1947, the Musical Arranger, Conductor, and Keyboardist Who Helped Bring Electric Light Orchestra’s Albums to Ethereal Heights

When one thinks of ELO, one thinks of Jeff Lynne. However, another important name in Electric Light Orchestra’s history is Louis Clark, the musical arranger, conductor, and keyboardist who helped bring albums like Eldorado to new heights. The conductor of the choir and orchestra hired to back ELO on that 1974 album, Clark also arranged the string section on Eldorado, Face The Music (1975), A New World Record (1976), Out Of The Blue (1977), Discovery (1979) and Xanadu (1980). And he was born on this day, February 27, 1947.

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Let’s celebrate Clark’s legacy as one of the finest musicians and arrangers of the 1980s, shall we?

The Legacy of Louis Clark

Louis Clark was born on February 27, 1947. Much of Clark’s early life, such as the exact location of his birth and his family upbringing, isn’t publicly known. What we do know is that he trained at Leeds College of Music, and he started out as a bassist for the Birmingham band The Buccaneers, which eventually became The Raymond Roggatt Band.

In the mid-1970s, Clark became the conductor and arranger of the choir and orchestra hired to back the record of Electric Light Orchestra’s Eldorado in 1974. Clark helped Jeff Lynne and Richard Tandy compose the string arrangements for a number of ELO albums and also played the synth for ELO when they embarked on their tour to promote Time.

Between his work with ELO, Clark also worked extensively with other big-name musicians of the time. In the 1970s, he worked with City, Renaissance, Annie Haslam, and others. Throughout the 1980s, Clark was the arranger for a number of bands and musicians, including Asia, America, Ozzy Osbourne, and Roy Orbison.

In the early 1980s, he returned to being an arranger and conductor for the strings on Secret Messages and also played keyboards with the band at a number of live concerts. It’s no surprise that Clark would become connected to ELO Part II during the 1990s, as well as its rebranding as The Orchestra at the turn of the millennium. Clark, a full-time member, remained with the group until his death in 2021.

Louis Clark passed away on February 11, 2021, in Elyria, Ohio, following an illness. He was 73.

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