(Credits: Far Out / Jeff Lynne)
Sun 30 November 2025 18:56, UK
Half of what Jeff Lynne did in the studio was about finding the right instrument for every single occasion.
Most songwriters can make anything work with a guitar in their hands and a song in their heart, but whereas most rock bands want to capture a performance, Lynne was all about layering a song bit by bit until he got the sound he wanted. A lot of that comes from stacking parts on top of each other, but sometimes all he needed was the right player to truly blow him away.
It’s not like he was lacking in talented creative partners throughout his career, either. There aren’t many people who could have delivered a better vocal take than Roy Orbison in the Traveling Wilburys, and even when he was on his own, a lot of what Lynne came up with on ELO albums like Out of the Blue set the standard for what 1970s pop could sound like if they put proper care into the production of their songs.
And the rest of the world was more than willing to pay attention. Despite being under the watchful eye of Dr Landy, Brian Wilson knew that he had a fellow music visionary when working with Lynne on his solo projects, and there’s a good chance that checking harmonies for The Beatles never stopped being a thrill for Lynne when he first started working on tunes like ‘Free As A Bird’.
But while George Harrison may have been one of his closest musical friends throughout his life, there’s no way to quantify the connection that he and Tom Petty had when they started working together. The Wilburys was a fun idea at the time, but since Lynne and Petty were the little brothers of the group, it was only a matter of time before they started to see what they could make if they worked together.
Then again, Full Moon Fever does have something missing with the rest of the Heartbreakers out of the mix. Mike Campbell still brings a lot to the mix with that huge guitar solo on ‘Runnin’ Down A Dream’, but when working with the full band on the next record, Lynne got an education when listening to what Benmont Tench could do behind the piano.
Tench had already knocked out the rest of the band before he was out of his teens when he joined Mudcrutch, but when Lynne heard him, Campbell remembered him being completely knocked out by what he could do, saying, “Benmont went into the living room, where we had set him up with an upright piano. He started warming up–flying through blues and boogie-woogie and some standards, and probably a Debussy sonata. Not even trying yet. Jeff watched him play and then came back to the little room. He shook his head [and said] ‘I think that might be the greatest piano player I have ever heard in my life.’”
Which probably explains why Tench was able to become one of the most in-demand session players after the fact. He had a far more eclectic style than most would have thought, but the idea of going from working with everyone from Stevie Nicks to Johnny Cash to even turning in time with Green Day is one of the most insane leaps than any of Tench’s contemporaries. At the same time, would you expect anything less from a kid who used to go into the music store, play a Beatles album in full on piano and leave as if nothing had happened?
Lynne had a much different set of skills when it came to knowing what instrument works best in a particular song, but Tench’s abilities went beyond the traditional rock and roll setup. That kind of talent only comes from someone that’s put in the right amount of hours to the point where they are truly at one with their instrument.
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