The worries Jeff Lynne held over ELO’s big 1977 hit: “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. As someone whose finger prints have been on hundreds of hits in various capacities, Jeff Lynne knows that all too well.
The elusive mystery of hits 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. It is an effortless ray of sunshine that comes into its own every summer even half a century on. Although it did, somehow, only peak at 35th in the US upon release (it did make it to sixth in the UK). Since then, it has taken on a life of its own.
“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.’” It sounds like a curious reaction given that it is now a classic. But the fuzzy-haired producer had his reasons.
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.” Worryingly, Lynne had been contemplating edits as he worried over the initial sound.
He rushed it on to the mastering phase, thankfully adding, “But when I heard it finished and mastered, it sounded great, so all those worries were gone.” Yet, the fact that they were there in the first place proves illuminating.
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.” In fact, it might sound cheesy, but you can almost feel that in the song itself.
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?
