Blue Electric Light

The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970, by songwriters/multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of Beatlesque pop, classical arrangements, and futuristic iconography. After Wood's departure in 1972, Lynne became the band's leader, arranging and producing every album while writing virtually all of their original material…

Epic/Legacy's 2005 release All Over the World: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra is the latest installment in the seemingly endless series of ELO comps. Since it follows 2003's handy single-disc The Essential Electric Light Orchestra by merely two years, it's easy to wonder what distinguishes this from the other ELO collections on the market, and whether it was necessary to release another single-disc set so quickly after the last. The biggest differences between All Over the World and Essential is that the 2005 release has some very nice but altogether too brief liner notes from Jeff Lynne along with five more tracks than the 15-track 2003 release.

Epic/Legacy's 2005 release All Over the World: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra is the latest installment in the seemingly endless series of ELO comps. Since it follows 2003's handy single-disc The Essential Electric Light Orchestra by merely two years, it's easy to wonder what distinguishes this from the other ELO collections on the market, and whether it was necessary to release another single-disc set so quickly after the last. The biggest differences between All Over the World and Essential is that the 2005 release has some very nice but altogether too brief liner notes from Jeff Lynne along with five more tracks than the 15-track 2003 release.

Strange Magic: The Best of Electric Light Orchestra is a compilation album by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), released in 1995 only in the US. The compilation favours album versions rather than single versions; tracks such as "Rock 'n' Roll Is King", "Shine a Little Love" and "Boy Blue" are longer. The compilation is sequenced chronologically and is based around US singles sans 3 from Xanadu, with exception of the European hit "Rockaria!" on disc one.

Sony Music have released a new 5CD from their Original Album Classics series which compiles the albums "Armchair Theatre," "Zoom," "Long Wave," "Mr. Blue Sky: The Very Best Of Electric Light Orchestra" and "Electric Light Orchestra Live." These albums were previously released by Frontiers in 2012 and 2013, but went OOP when Jeff Lynne released "Alone In The Universe" and returned to touring. Despite the joy of having these CDs back in print, there are some differences with regards to bonus content. For example, the "Zoom" CD on this set omits the bonus tracks 'One Day' and the live version of 'Turn To Stone.' The "Armchair Theatre" CD on this set omits the bonus tracks 'Borderline' and 'Forecast.' The "Live" CD on this set omits the bonus tracks 'Out Of Luck' and 'Cold Feet.'

Still rather wrong-headedly regarded as a ‘guilty pleasure’ (thanks Sean Rowley), Jeff Lynne’s Electric Light Orchestra were quite simply a gigantic pop hit machine. Oft-derided as a mere Beatles copyist, Lynne’s genius was to take his earliest ambition of recreating the rush felt when first hearing ‘’I Am The Walrus’’ and achieve it, again and again.