The long-held regrets Jeff Lynne had over an ELO masterpiece: “I wish it sounded better”
There’s often no rhyme or reason to what becomes a hit. While catchy hooks and easy-to-digest tempos form a rough framework, how they’re executed is entirely subjective. That means even the most unlikely songs can end up defining a band’s legacy—whether they want them to or not. Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘The Sounds of Silence’, for example, is an unexpected calling card for a duo known for crafting more melodic, upbeat tracks. But with ELO’s ‘Mr Blue Sky’, it’s almost impossible to imagine it ever being considered an album filler.
“I’ve always been amazed at how popular ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ is,” said the band’s lead singer, Jeff Lynne. “At the time, I remember mastering it as a single in England and thinking, ‘I wish it sounded better than that.’”
Lynne continued: “The speakers were so flat-sounding in the cutting room where they cut the disc that it misled me into thinking it wasn’t sounding very good. But when I heard it finished and mastered, it sounded great, so all those worries were gone.”
But the average listener rarely gets bogged down in the technicalities of a record’s mastering and instead dives into its sentiment and compositional provocation. ‘Mr Blue Sky’ is the ultimate optimism anthem, with a catchy hook leading Lynne’s pining for the sort of sunnier climates we all dream of in the depths of winter. Lyrically, it’s the rather simple and direct outlook that has placed it so firmly in the memories of listeners.
“When I wrote those words to that song, it had been vile weather,” Lynne shared. “It was mist and fog and cloudy; it was just horrible. One day, I got up, and the weather was just suddenly all beautiful and shiny, and that’s when all the words came along for me on for that song.”
Outside of the lyrics, it’s a band that showcases ELO’s musicianship. A joyous beat gives way to stunning harmonies, making it what many would consider the happiest sonic composition of all time. But perhaps what boosted its ability to strike the hearts and minds of 1970s listeners was its relative difference from common trends at the time.
While ELO’s admittedly Beatles-esque style was popular in the late 1960s, by the time they entered the scene, the flower shirts had given way to collar-popping leather. So much like the emerging sun in which Lynne worships, ‘Mr Blue Sky’ bathed rock’s jagged-edged landscape with beaming streaks of light.
“My intention behind the sound of ELO was simply to get away from what all the other groups seemed to be doing around that time,” added Lynne. “Around ’71, ’72, all the big long guitar solos were the rage, 10-minute guitar solos. I wanted to do stuff that had more of a tune. I wanted tunes because I love tunes.”
Despite Lynne’s amazement, ‘Mr Blue Sky’ has become a certified summer anthem and a go-to for any director looking to inject happiness into a sun-kissed Hollywood scene. While there are many other songs for ELO to wheel out during their live shows, nothing quite hits like ‘Mr Blue Sky’. But in Lynne’s case, how could he write a sequel to a hit he didn’t know was a hit in the first place?
