ELO Overview

Electric Light Orchestra, also known as ELO, were a rock music group from Birmingham, England that released twelve albums between 1971 and 1986, and one album in 2001. The band's direction and focus for most of its history was driven by... [more]

Electric Light Orchestra, also known as ELO, were a rock music group from Birmingham, England that released twelve albums between 1971 and 1986, and one album in 2001. The band's direction and focus for most of its history was driven by Jeff Lynne. It was in the United States that the band were first warmly received, billed as The English guys with the big fiddles. They soon gained a cult following despite lukewarm reviews back in their native United Kingdom. They were managed by no-nonsense businessman Don Arden (the father of Sharon Osbourne). By the mid seventies they had become one of the biggest selling rock music bands in the world. The group scored twenty top-20 UK hit singles, as well as fifteen top-20 appearances in the US Billboard charts. The band also holds the record for having the most Billboard Top 40 hits of any band in US history, without ever having a #1 single. The band proved to be an excellent vehicle for confessed Beatles fan Lynne's semi-classical Beatlesque compositions, steering a fine line between an album-oriented rock outfit and a hit-making machine. The group's name is an intended pun based not only on electric light (as in a light bulb as seen on early album covers) but also using "electric" rock instruments combined with a "light orchestra" (orchestras with only a few cellos and violins that were popular in Britain during the 1960s). The official band logo (left), designed in 1976 by artist Kosh, was first seen on their 1976 album A New World Record and is based on the upper cabinet of a 1946 Wurlitzer jukebox, model 4008. The band's previous logo (right) was similar to the General Electric logo. The new logo has appeared on most of the bands albums in various forms. For instance, on 1977's Out of the Blue the logo was turned in to a huge flying saucer space station, an enduring image that is now synonymous with the band. Again, on the follow up Discovery, the logo became a small glowing artifact on top of a treasure chest. Bev Bevan usually displayed the logo on his drum kit. [show less]