{"id":664107,"date":"2026-06-29T09:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T09:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/664107\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T09:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T09:56:12","slug":"the-george-harrison-album-jeff-lynne-picked-over-mccartneys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/664107\/","title":{"rendered":"The George Harrison album Jeff Lynne picked over McCartney’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jeff<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Jeff Lynne<\/p>\n

Mon 29 June 2026 6:39, UK <\/p>\n

The ELO bandleader Jeff Lynne<\/a> found his vocation in the 1960s. A childhood fascination with music gained momentum in his teen years, fuelled in no small part by the emergence of The Beatles. <\/p>\n

Although the Birmingham musician would ultimately achieve widespread fame for a disco-infused approach to rock in the \u201970s, his early bands, The Andicaps and The Chads, would model their sound on rhythm and blues, much like their Liverpudlian idols.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite ELO\u2019s polished orchestral pop becoming his trademark, Lynne never lost sight of the songwriting principles that first drew him to The Beatles. Melody, harmony and economy remained at the heart of everything he produced, whether for his own band or the many artists who later sought out his unmistakable studio touch.<\/p>\n

Lynne first met The Beatles in the late 1960s while they were still just about able to function together in a studio. In a past documentary, Lynne revealed that, while working on the ELO debut, his engineer invited him to watch the famous four-piece record at Abbey Road Studios<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe engineer said, \u2018Anybody wanna go down to Abbey Road and watch The Beatles recording?\u2019 And I was making my very first album at about 20. I went, \u2018What?! Can\u2019t you see we\u2019re busy?’\u201d Lynne remembered joking. \u201cI said, \u2018Yeah. Let\u2019s go,\u2019 and I was down there in about ten seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ The Traveling Wilburys<\/p>\n

Lynne recalled that the security was pretty relaxed. \u201cOnce you got past the bloke on the door, it was a bit dodgy; it was like going to this palace of recording,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd this was just at the time I was wanting to be a producer, I was making my first album\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sort of crept in and said, \u2018Hello, John. Hello, George.\u2019 It was so scary, just unbelievable, surreal. It was like a dream, hanging out in all this wonderment. We got chucked out of there after about ten minutes, but I couldn\u2019t sleep for nights after that, just reliving it,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Summarising the experience, Lynne noted that it was one of the most critical moments of his career. \u201cIt was the biggest thrill ever because I got to see something I never dreamed possible,\u201d he noted. \u201cGoing in there and getting into that space, it\u2019s scary. Because it\u2019s all the history, you know, the atmosphere of the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crucially, this was Lynne\u2019s first contact with George Harrison. Following his most emphatic tenure with ELO, Lynne branched out into production. While producing Harrison\u2019s 1987 comeback album, Cloud Nine, Lynne befriended a kindred spirit and within a year, he had joined Traveling Wilburys with Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Roy Orbison. <\/p>\n

During the late \u201980s, Lynne expanded his production portfolio with work on Tom Petty\u2019s Full Moon Fever and Roy Orbison\u2019s Mystery Girl. As the 1990s dawned, Lynne stepped up to the plate to his biggest production task yet: joining George Martin on the credits for The Beatles\u2019 1995 compilation Anthology 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 1997, he produced Paul McCartney\u2019s solo album Flaming Pie and is now considered the heir to George Martin\u2019s title as The Beatles\u2019 producer, most recently working on the band\u2019s last ever single, \u2018Now and Then\u2019. It\u2019s safe to say a teenage Lynne would double-take to see such a track record. <\/p>\n

In 2012, The Quietus challenged Lynne to pick out his 13 all-time favourite albums. As a bonafide Beatlemaniac, he squeezed two Beatles records onto the list: Revolver and Please Pease Me. Lynne also reserved one spot for a Beatles solo LP, honouring his close friend Harrison and their collaboration Cloud Nine over McCartney\u2019s Flaming Pie.<\/p>\n

Looking back, Lynne\u2019s career feels remarkably full-circle. What began with a nervous ten-minute visit to Abbey Road eventually led to him working alongside George Harrison, producing records for Paul McCartney and helping complete the final Beatles release. Few musicians have gone from devoted fan to trusted collaborator so completely, making his admiration for the band\u2019s catalogue feel less like nostalgia and more like the foundation of an extraordinary career.<\/p>\n

Listen to \u2018Got My Mind Set on You\u2019 from Cloud Nine below. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ Jeff Lynne Mon 29 June 2026 6:39, UK The ELO bandleader Jeff Lynne found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[24308,96,26940,24310,128,6470,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-664107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-electric-light-orchestra","tag-entertainment","tag-george-harrison","tag-jeff-lynne","tag-music","tag-paul-mccartney","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664107","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=664107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664107\/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=664107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}