Song:Evil Woman
Album:All Over The World: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra
The Electric Light Orchestra was one of the most successful bands of the 70s. Evil Woman was one of several top ten hits. They never had a number one hit but Evil Woman was one of their earlier hits so it helped them reach a larger audience. The beginning of ELO came with the end of The Move. Jeff Lynne left The Idle Race for The Move in 1970. Roy Wood wanted to start a new band that combined rock with classical music elements including a complete string section. The Move's drummer Bev Bevan was also to be a part of the new band. So they recorded two The Move albums to finance this new group. The debut album No Answer was released in 1972 by United Artists. Lynne and Wood split the songwriting duties. They played live with a string section. Not surprisingly, Lynne and Wood butted heads over control of the band and Wood left to form Wizzard. Bevan remained on drums and they added Richard Tandy on keyboards Mike de Albuquerque on bass and the strings. The main improvement in the band was Lynne amplified the strings better so they wouldn't get drowned out. They had a hit in England with their cover of Chuck Berry's Roll Over Beethoven. In 1974, ELO had their first US top ten hit with I Can't Get It Out Of My Head from the album El Dorado, A Symphony. It reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 200 and was their first Gold album. de Albuquerque was replaced by Kelly Groucutt. ELO's 1975 album Face The Music also went Gold and Evil Woman reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100. The success continued through the 70s. They had a total of seven top ten hits. Their most successful album was 1979's Discovery though fans didn't like the disco influences. Lynne wrote the music for the film Xanadu and then got rid of the strings in 1981. This started a decline and Lynne disbanded ELO in 1986 and that's when he got more into producing and formed The Traveling Wilburys. This budget comp is a good intro to ELO's music. Bev Bevan started ELO Part II in 1989 and toured under that name until he sold the name to Lynne in 1999. Lynne released Zoom as an ELO CD in 2001. But it was just him with guest musicians. Lynne hasn't recorded any ELO albums since then but he is supposed to be working on a solo album with Joe Walsh. He's still a sought after producer. Here's the video for Evil Woman by Electric Light Orchestra.
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