Cabe’s Collection – Electric Light Orchestra’s ‘A New World Record’
Cabe Eaton is an Austin-based music fanatic and author of the new book, How Did This Sh*t Become a Number 1 Hit?: From WTF to #1 – 50 Bizarre Hits That Took Over the Charts and the Reasons Why. You can purchase his book from online booksellers, such as Strand Books. Cabe is digging into his extensive collection of recordings for 360°Sound and taking a fresh, track-by-track look at some classics.
50 years ago this fall, the world witnessed a UFO. This brightly-colored spaceship, bearing the letters “ELO,” didn’t appear in the sky, but on the cover of British classical rock band Electric Light Orchestra’s sixth studio album, A New World Record. While still artistically ambitious, featuring the band’s signature strings and classical arrangements, the album’s more radio-friendly song formats represented a commercial breakthrough for the band.
Released in 1976, A New World Record (a punny title inspired in part by the 1976 Summer Olympics), is a certified desert island classic… assuming you can find an electrical outlet on that island. It’s also the first of ELO’s “UFO” trilogy, followed by 1977’s Out of the Blue, the band’s commercial apex, and 1979’s uneven but popular Discovery. The first time yours truly heard A New World Record was on an 8-track tape played through the speakers of a dubious living-room stereo system. But even with the clicks, clunks, and jumbled song sequence offered by the now-extinct listening apparatus, I instantly fell in love with the album.
A New World Record harkens back to the roots of the British-based ELO, who originated during the late-‘60s as the Move, including multi-instrumentalist/frontman Roy Wood and future ELO drummer Bev Bevan. Idle Race guitarist/vocalist Jeff Lynne joined the Move for 1970’s Looking On. Wood, Bevan, and Lynne would dissolve the Move to form the strings-heavy Electric Light Orchestra, mixing classical elements with amplifiers. However, Wood would split following the release of the group’s 1971 eponymous debut LP (released in the US as No Answer in `1972). After expanding into a septet with Lynne out in front, ELO would finally score their first US Top 10 hit with the 1974 single “Can’t Get It Out of My Head.” But it was their next Top 10 hit, 1975’s “Evil Woman,” that officially put the band on the map in America.
To improve upon their chart success, ELO would have to knock it out of the park—and they did so with A New World Record. The LP would reach the Top 5 of the Billboard 200 and spawn four hit singles. Jeff Lynne & Co. would reemphasize their classical approach for A New World Record, while expanding their technological horizons and taking a slight detour into its past catalog for what is a fine record. A new one for the world.
“Tightrope”
This opening track begins with a synthesizer-soaked fade-in to a dramatic passage played by the string musicians. The strings soon freak out with a disjointed riff that transitions into a slide guitar-driven shuffle rock. It’s a rip-roaring introduction to A New World Record. Sergei Rachmaninov, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and George Harrison would all be kicking themselves for not composing this one.
“Telephone Line”
This would become ELO’s most commercially successful single (#7 on the US Billboard Hot 100)—and it’s easy to see why. Whether it’s the opening array of beeps and ring tones (reproduced by means of keyboardist Richard Tandy’s Moog synthesizer) or the visual of Adam Sandler’s apologetic phone call to Steve Buscemi in Billy Madison, this heartbreaker has left a lasting impression.
“Rockaria!”
The exclamation point is well-deserved on this gem which demonstrates a true marriage of classical music and rock and roll. (Listen for the opening notes from Beethoven’s 5th Symphony that follow Lynne’s proclamation, “I think she’d die for Beethoven.”) “Rockaria!”—a Top 10 hit in the UK—is an improvement upon ELO’s classical-meets-rock mash-up of Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven” from 1973. Mary Thomas is responsible for the operatic vocal part (including the false start).
“Mission (A World Record)”
Whomever is commanding the UFO on the cover of A New World Record reveals his marching orders while on Earth: “My orders are to sit here and watch the world go by.” Pretty boring stuff. But the musical arrangement of “Mission (A World Record)” is anything but boring, with its mesmerizing chord structure and fine harmony layers.
“So Fine”
This is the ELO single that never was. It’s hard to understand why, with its disco-space-age arrangement and mind-blowing percussion/electronic break that finds Tandy’s Moog once again hard at work.
“Livin’ Thing”
Arguably the most popular cut on A New World Record, this steady rocker about getting dumped—which reached the Top 10 and the Top 20 in the UK and US, respectively—would later get several new leases on life, via the 1997 film Boogie Nights and JC Penney holiday ads years later.
“Above the Clouds”
The string-backed “noir” introduction of “Above the Clouds” develops into a staccato groove, filled with more wonderful harmonies. This filler is killer.
“Do Ya”
This stadium rocker first appeared as the B-side of the 1972 Move single “California Man.” A few years later, Todd Rundgren and his group Utopia added the song to their concert sets. ELO would resurrect the Lynne-penned “Do Ya” for A New World Record and issue it as the final single from the LP. The move (pardon the pun) would pay off as the tune would peak at #24 on the Hot 100 in 1977. As with “Livin’ Thing,” “Do Ya” would gain some extra mileage with its later use in commercials for Monster.com and Simmons Beautyrest.
“Shangri-La”
It’s time to mellow out with this wistful closing ballad. And only Jeff Lynne could get away with the lyric, “My Shangri-La has gone away / Fading like the Beatles on ‘Hey Jude.’” The song has similar lyrical themes to those of “Livin’ Thing,” but with the energy level brought down several notches. Listen as the strings re-emerge at the ending for what is an earth-shattering coda. It sounds fantastic – even on a crappy 8-track tape.
