The 1977 ELO song Jeff Lynne compared to a “nursery rhyme”
It was all over for Jeff Lynne the second that he and Electric Light Orchestra released ‘Mr. Blue Sky’.
The British rock outfit was already well known by that point, having bridged the gap between rock and classical while picking up where The Beatles left off. But Lynne was always hesitant to be in the spotlight, preferring to hide behind his massive hair, sunglasses, and army of strings. That became impossible after ‘Mr. Blue Sky’.
The song didn’t just elevate ELO’s profile; it fundamentally changed Lynne’s relationship with fame. What had once been a carefully managed distance between himself and the spotlight suddenly collapsed, with ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ turning him into the public face of a band that had previously thrived on mystique and layered production rather than personality.
“I suppose this is my most well-known song,” Lynne told Rolling Stone. “Everybody tells me something different about it. It’s even got crazy appeal to kids since it’s like a nursery rhyme. I remember writing the words down. I was at a chalet in the mountains of Switzerland, and it was all misty and cloudy all the way around. I didn’t see any countryside for the first four days or so, and then everything cleared, and there was this enormous view forever, and the sky was blue.”
“By this point, we were playing stadiums. I think the biggest crowd was 83,000. It was fun but kind of scary as well,” Lynne said. “I’d think, ‘I hope the Beatles are on afterwards — otherwise, we’re gonna get murdered.’ The concerts were horrible. I couldn’t hear the strings and half the time, you had to turn them off because they used to run around while they played them.”
Lynne’s distaste for the bright lights and attention that came with being a major rock musician would influence his desire to take up life as a producer full-time. By the 1980s, Lynne was already formalising his decision to break up ELO, intent on focusing on music from behind the mixing desk.
It was less a retreat and more a return to what he valued most. The studio had always been Lynne’s natural habitat, a place where he could obsess over detail, experiment with sound, and shape records without the unpredictability and exposure that came with life onstage.
“I was reluctant to become a real rock star. I was shy and was always told to not get a big head. And my favourite thing in the world was to work 14 hours a day in the studio,” Lynne claimed. “Everything else was peripheral to me, like having the record out and promoting it.”
“I did have a big house, but I didn’t do rock-star things. I never saw myself like that,” Lynne added. “I was a songwriter, singer and producer. Rock stars are different. They dress all flashy and hang out in nightclubs. That just wasn’t my priority. I liked to spend my spare moments at the pub.”
Lynne could have had a nice, quiet existence as a producer had it not been for his friend, George Harrison. After having dinner one night, Harrison asked Lynne who he would like to include in a supergroup if he had no barriers or restrictions. Lynne chose Roy Orbison, and Harrison chose Bob Dylan.
Lynne didn’t think much of it until Harrison actually got the four together, plus Tom Petty, to record ‘Handle With Care’ as the first single by their new group, The Traveling Wilburys.
