{"id":427096,"date":"2026-02-15T13:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T13:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/427096\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T13:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T13:52:10","slug":"the-favourite-elo-song-jeff-lynne-almost-got-bored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/427096\/","title":{"rendered":"The favourite ELO song Jeff Lynne almost got bored"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Jeff Lynne)<\/p>\n

Sun 15 February 2026 10:53, UK <\/p>\n

The legendary rock musician and producer Jeff Lynne<\/a> began his musical career in 1963 at age 16. His formative teenage bands idolised The Beatles and mimicked the efforts of eminent British Invasion acts. This was just the beginning of a remarkable career that would see Lynne befriend George Harrison and even produce posthumous Beatles releases, including parts of the Anthology series and the last ever single, \u2018Now and Then\u2019. <\/p>\n

Between Lynne\u2019s teenage dreams and his entry to Traveling Wilburys<\/a> alongside Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Roy Orbison in the late 1980s, his rise to success relied on the success of his pop-rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). <\/p>\n

Although ELO soared to unprecedented heights in 1977, following the release of their most famous album, Out of the Blue, home to \u2018Turn to Stone\u2019, \u2018Mr. Blue Sky\u2019 and \u2018Sweet Talkin\u2019 Woman\u2019, the band first broke through to mainstream success in 1974, thanks to Eldorado and its charting lead single, \u2018Can\u2019t Get It Out of My Head\u2019<\/a>. <\/p>\n

ELO\u2019s early 1970s material danced the fine line between prog-rock\u2019s contemporary complexities and glam-rock\u2019s celestial sheen. However, the runaway success of later releases like Out of the Blue and Discovery could be attributed to a danceable, disco-inspired aesthetic fit to rival The Bee Gees. <\/p>\n

In a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, Lynne discussed his love of disco music and picked out a personal favourite from this era for ELO. \u201c\u2018Turn to Stone\u2019 is one of my favourites I ever did,\u201d he asserted. \u201cIt\u2019s just so primary and simple, but yet very evocative. I love the shuffle beat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continuing, Lynne remembered assembling the song with blissful abandon. \u201cThere\u2019s a part in the middle where I talk super fast,\u201d he said. \u201cI just felt like it needed something simple in the middle of the song. I often used to put a funny little piece in a song just in case I get bored with it. I\u2019d go, \u2018Well, maybe this is going on too long. I\u2019ll think of something daft to put in there.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDisco was popular around this time, and I loved it,\u201d Lynne added, discussing the late 1970s. \u201cI loved the strictness of it. It really helped the group because I could really get a good punch going. There\u2019s a lot of goodness in disco. I like some punk, too. Obviously, they were doing it from a place where they meant well, though maybe they didn\u2019t quite know how to play properly yet. They were rough and ready like I was when I started.\u201d<\/p>\n

What makes \u2018Turn to Stone\u2019 such a telling choice is how it captures Lynne at his most instinctive. For all the orchestration and studio wizardry that would come to define ELO, the track thrives on economy and groove. The shuffle beat he praises gives the song its propulsion, proving that even a producer known for layering strings and harmonies understood the power of rhythmic discipline.<\/p>\n

In many ways, Lynne\u2019s affection for disco reveals the core of his creative identity. He has always been less concerned with genre boundaries than with momentum and feeling, borrowing from whatever movement offered the strongest pulse. From teenage Beatles devotee to chart-topping architect of pop spectacle, his career has been defined by that openness. \u2018Turn to Stone\u2019 stands as a reminder that simplicity, when handled with conviction, can be just as ambitious as the grandest production.<\/p>\n

Listen to \u2018Turn to Stone\u2019 by Electric Light Orchestra below. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Jeff Lynne) Sun 15 February 2026 10:53, UK The legendary rock musician and producer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[24308,96,24310,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-427096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-electric-light-orchestra","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-jeff-lynne","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}