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Electric Light Orchestra - Greatest Hits (1979)

Track listing:
  1. 10538 Overture 5:29
  2. Kuiama 9:11
  3. Roll over Beethoven 4:32
  4. Boy Blue 4:14
  5. Evil Woman 4:10
  6. Livin' Thing 3:29
  7. Can't Get It Out Of My Head 4:22
  8. Showdown 3:50
  9. Turn To Stone 3:42
  10. Rockaria! 3:13
  11. Sweet Talkin' Woman 3:43
  12. Telephone Line 4:25
  13. Ma-Ma-Ma Belle 3:31
  14. Strange Magic 4:05
  15. Mr. Blue Sky 5:00
  16. Last Train To London 4:29
  17. Don't Bring Me Down 4:05

Notes

By ignoring the band's first two albums, the Roy Wood-dominated Electric Light Orchestra and the transitional ELO II, the 1979 singles compilation ELO's Greatest Hits presents a somewhat skewed vision of the band. Ironically, this revision has become the normative view of the band: slick, almost mechanical purveyors of undeniably catchy but somewhat soulless hit singles. "Evil Woman," "Showdown," "Turn to Stone," "Telephone Line," "Strange Magic" — anyone who was anywhere near a radio in the latter half of the '70s knows them all by heart, whether they like them or not. But ELO's Greatest Hits does a far graver disservice to the Electric Light Orchestra's oeuvre. For some reason, the original vinyl LP sounded somewhat muffled and distant, as if the EQ was perceptibly off. The CD was apparently mastered from the same poor-quality tapes. The result is while this is otherwise a fine survey of Jeff Lynne's most successful — if not necessarily his best — songs, it just doesn't sound very good. The ELO catalog has since been carefully remastered, and sounds worlds better. The two-disc Strange Magic and three-disc Flashback compilations trump ELO's Greatest Hits in both sound quality and historical accuracy.