Studio - 7. Out of the Blue (Electric Light Orchestra album) 1. History, 2. Concerto for a Rainy Day.

Studio - 7. Out of the Blue (Electric Light Orchestra album)

1. History.

Jeff Lynne wrote the entire album in three and a half weeks after a sudden burst of creativity whilst hidden away in his rented chalet in the Swiss Alps. It took a further two months to record in Munich. The album had 4,000,000 pre-ordered copies and quickly went multi-Platinum upon release. Out of the Blue spawned five hit singles in different countries, and was ELO's most commercially successful studio album. It was also the first double album in the history of the UK music charts to generate four top twenty hit singles. Side three of the original double LP consisted of the symphonic Concerto for a Rainy Day, composed of four separate tracks which together made up a cohesive suite. The inclement weather effects heard on "Concerto" were real and recorded by Jeff Lynne during a very rainy summer in Munich 1977. The Concerto suite would be Lynne's last dabbling in symphonic rock.

Jeff Lynne considers A New World Record and Out of the Blue to be the group's crowning achievements ^[1][2] and both sold extremely well, reaching multi-platinum according to RIAA Certification. Capital Radio and The Daily Mirror Rock and Pop Awards (forerunner to The Brit Awards) named it "Album of the Year" in 1978. Jeff Lynne, the album's composer, received his first Ivor Novello award for Outstanding Contributions to British Music the same year.

The large spaceship on the album's cover (by now symbolic of the group) was designed by Shusei Nagaoka and Ria Lewerke, based on a logo which noted designer John Kosh had designed for A New World Record. The serial number JTLA 823 L2, which is featured on the shuttle arriving at the space station, is the original catalogue number for the album. The album also included an insert of a cardboard cutout of the space station as well as a fold-out poster of the band members. The space theme was carried onto the live stage in the form of a huge glowing flying saucer stage set, inside which the band performed.

2. Concerto for a Rainy Day.

Side three of the release is subtitled "Concerto for a Rainy Day", a four track musical suite based on the weather and how it affects mood change, ending gloriously with the eventual sunshine and happiness of "Mr. Blue Sky". This was inspired by Jeff Lynne's experience whilst trying to write songs for the album against torrential rain outside his Swiss Chalet.

"Standin' in the Rain" opens with a haunting keyboard over a recording of real rain, recorded by Jeff Lynne just outside his rented studio. Also heard at the 30 second point of the song marking the beginning of The Concerto is thunder crackling in an unusual manner voicing the words "Concerto for a Rainy Day" by the band's keyboardist, Richard Tandy. ELO used the song to open their 1978 Out Of The Blue concerts.

"Big Wheels" forms the second part of the Concerto for a Rainy Day suite and continues with the theme of the weather and reflection followed by the more optimistic third part "Summer and Lightning". Apart from its inclusion on the Out Of The Blue album, the song has never appeared on any compilation or B-sides until 2000, when Jeff Lynne, the song's composer, included it on the group's retrospective album Flashback.

"Summer and Lightning" is the third song in the "Concerto for a Rainy Day" suite. The raining weather theme is continued throughout the track though the mood and lyrics are more optimistic eventually leading on to the classic finale of...

..."Mr. Blue Sky" is the finale of "Concerto for a Rainy Day". It is an uplifiting, lively song celebrating sunshine. It is the only piece from the Concerto to be excerpted as a single. In the last orchestral note, the phrase "Please Turn Me O-ver" spoken through a vocoder can be heard (This bit has been misheard repeatedly as "Mr. Blue Sky, why?", but original keyboardist Richard Tandy confirmed the actual lyric to members of the Showdown ELO fan list). (This is an instruction for owners of the original vinyl album to turn it over to listen to the following side.)