“Mr Blue Sky” — ELO

Few songs have a more uplifting feel to them than “Mr Blue Sky” by ELO (that’s Electric Light Orchestra if you’re feeling posh…).

Jeff Lynne, the creative force behind ELO…and the Move, the Travelling Wilbury’s and the latter stages of Roy Orbison’s career, amongst many other achievements…wrote “Mr Blue Sky” on a songwriting trip to Switzerland when, after a couple of grim weeks weather-wise, the sun came out and everything was right with the world again.

Not all of us can enjoy songwriting trips to Switzerland for a few weeks…that’s the sort of thing you need to have bona fide rock star status for, I suspect…but at least we can all appreciate the symphonic composition Jeff Lynne was inspired to write on his Alpine getaway.

“Mr Blue Sky” always feels to me like a musical representation of the world immediately after the dark, post-apocalyptic clouds have parted and the first rays of sunshine poke through the gloom to warm the surface of the planet once more.

ELO had always been an interesting band. They’d grown out of The Move…a group which, amongst others, included ELO frontman Jeff Lynne, ELO drummer Bev Bevan and future Wizzard frontman Roy Wood.

The Move did very well in late-1960’s Britain, with hits including “Flowers In The Rain” and “Blackberry Way”. “Flowers In The Rain” has its own unique entry in pop music history as the first record played on BBC Radio 1 in September 1967, after the BBC decided to set up the UK’s first dedicated pop music radio station and take…