Sing The Body Electric Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jeff Lynne

Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne formed ELO in 1970 with the idea to bring a woodwind sound to rock music. The first studio album "No Answer" in the US and Electric Light Orchestra" in the UK included the successful "10538 Overture". The song written by Lynne used a heavy cello overdubbing technique that became a signature for the group. Wood left ELO soon thereafter in a clash of egos with Lynne. Between 1974 and 1983 ELO released eight albums that were certified gold or platinum in the US and had 27 top 40 hit singles. Oddly despite that success ELO never produced a song to reach number one on the Billboard chart.

Jeff Lynne was the lead signer and creative force behind nearly all of ELO's hits. After the group essentially disbanded in the early 2000s Lynne decided to remake the group's songs. In October 2012 Lynn released the album "Mr. Blue Sky: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra" not so much as a solo album but as a mature Lynne improving the production qualities of the older 1970s songs. Lynne's motivation has been criticized since no other members of ELO performed on "Mr. Blue Sky". Speculation has centered on the fact that Lynne did not own the ELO master catalog; and he may have wanted to increase his ability to license the songs for commercials, movies and TV.

Answer: Velvet Revolver

"Cant Get It Out My Head" was the second and most popular single released from ELO's fourth album "El Dorado" in 1974. As a single "Cant Get It Out of My Head" reached as high as number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Ironically the single did poorly in the UK. During this time the band was considerably more popular in the US and France and still not well known in their home-base in the UK.

Velvet Revolver was the collaboration of Guns N' Roses members Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, Dave Kushner of Twisted Youth and Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots. The band's first album, 2004's "Contraband" was very successful selling over 2,000,000 units and was certified double platinum. The groups second album, 2007's "Libertad" was not as successful but did contain the hard rocking version of "Cant Get It Out of My Head". The group broke up in 2008 due mostly to the tension caused by Scot Weiland's continued drug problems.

The Fountains of Wayne released a live track of their cover version for "Can't Get It Out of My Head" as b-side to their single CD "Sink to the Bottom". Fountains of Wayne is best known for their hit 2003 song "Stacy's Mom" and for co-founder Adam Schlesinger's Academy Award nomination as the songwriter for 1997's "That Thing You Do". Chickenfoot is another super-group formed by Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony of Van Halen, Joe Satriani and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The Traveling Willburys are one of the true super-groups from the 1990s. The Wilburys featured Jeff Lynn of ELO, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, and George Harrison of the Beatles.

Answer: Mr. Blue Sky

"Mr. Blue Sky" was written by Jeff Lynne for ELO's seventh studio album, the 1977 "Out of the Blue". "Mr. Blue Sky" was the second single released from
"Out of the Blue", peaking at number six in the UK Singles Chart and number 35 in the US Billboard Hot 100. At the request of Mission Specialist Christopher Ferguson the song served as the third flight day wake-up call to astronauts during the last space shuttle voyage (Atlantis STS-135). The Birmingham City Football Club is called the Blues and its fans Bluenoses. ELO started as a Birmingham City local band. As such, "Mr. Blue Sky" has long been an anthem for the Blues and is played at all of their home games, before and after the match.

None of the cover versions of the song have achieved much success as singles; but have pushed the song into commercials and movies. A version by English singer/actress Lily Allen was used to sell French telephones; and the Nerf Herder version was used in the controversial 2007 BBC production "The Great Global Warming Swindle". "Mr Blue Sky" is the title song for the Jeff Lynne remake album of ELO songs "Mr. Blue Sky: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra".

Answer: Livin' Thing

ELO's 1976 album "A New World Record" was the bands sixth studio album and first to reach the top ten in the UK. The album sold over five million copies in its first year worldwide. "Livin' Thing" was the album's first top five UK single. In the USA the song reached number thirteen on the US Billboard Hot 100. Over time the song has remain a mainstay of ELO's "symphonic sound" and retained its popularity. In 2006 UK music magazine "Q" named "Livin'' Thing" their number one guilty pleasure or "uncool records it is okay to love" and described the song as "gloriously bonkers".

The Beautiful South released ten albums between 1989-2006. The band was highly popular in the UK with all albums charting in the top 20. The band had limited success outside of the UK and was largely unknown in the US. Their 2004 album "Golddigas, Headnodders and Pholf Songs" was interesting because all but one of the songs were covers that moved between music genres. In addition to "Livin'' Thing" the album included such diverse songs as "Blitzkreig Bop" (The Ramones), "Don't Fear the Reaper" (Blue Öyster Cult), all the way to "You're the One that I Want" from "Grease". The Beautiful South released their version of "Livin' Thing" as a UK single which reached number 24 on the UK Singles Chart.

Answer: Austin Powers in Goldmember

"Evil Woman" was recorded on ELO's fifth album, 1975's "Face the Music". The song was released as a single in 1975 and became the band's first true worldwide hit. "Evil Woman" reached number ten in both the US and UK and continued an odd run of ELO songs hitting the top five in France (Number two SNEP Singles). Jeff Lynne has commented in a number of interviews that "Evil Woman" took him thirty minutes to write and was intended to be a "filler" and not a mainstay of the "Face the Music" album. Despite the time to create the record the song has been oft covered and used in movies (such as the aforementioned "Goldmember"), television ("Community") and was part of Lynne's 2007 Broadway show "Xanadu".

Soul Hooligan featuring Jamaican singer Diana King performed a version of "Evil Woman" on the "Austin Powers in Goldmember" soundtrack album (2002), but oddly the cover version was not used in the film itself, preferring to use the ELO version. Another well-known live cover version was performed by Michael Stipe during R.E.M. concerts on their 1995 Monster Tour. Stipe would come on stage wearing a frizzy wig (a Jeff Lynne trademark) and sing "Evil Woman" before the R.E.M. show.

Answer: Darren Hayes

"Strange Magic" was ELO's follow-up single to "Evil Woman" and appeared on their 1975 "Face The Music" album. "Strange Magic" was a top 15 Billboard Hot 100 hits in the US; but achieved more modest success in the UK reaching only number 38 on UK Singles Chart. The song's famous "weepy" guitar refrain was provided by Richard Tandy, who normally played the multi-leveled keyboards on ELO songs. Tandy like other 1970s progressive rock keyboardists usually hid behind a host of synthesizers, clavinets, mellotrons, and pianos, so much that concert-goers might not even see him encased in his wall of sound.

As with other ELO classics "Strange Magic" has seen its use in film, television and stage. The song is used in the 2007 Jeff Lynne penned musical "Xanadu" (the original Broadway production sung by Jackie Hoffman and others), Sophia Coppola's fine film "The Virgin Suicides" and a Steve Rushton sung cover for Disney Channel's "The Wizard's of Waverly Place".

In the 2004 Disney movie "Ella Enchanted" former lead singer for the popular 1990s Australian band "Savage Garden", Darren Hayes created a stripped down version of the song for the movie soundtrack.

Answer: Ace Frehley

"Do Ya" is considered the first ELO song, even though it was not released until 1976 as part of the band's sixth studio record "A New World Order". Jeff Lynne wrote the song in 1971 and it was supposed to be recorded with Roy Wood as lead vocals as a song for The Move. Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan had joined Wood in The Move and the group released "Do Ya" as the b-side single to the UK hit song "California Man". The Move had been a staple of the UK charts throughout most of the late 1960s but had never achieved success in the US.

With the Wood, Lynne, Bevan line up The Move ceased to exist after the "California Man/Do Ya" record and the next album for the trio was under their new name Electric Light Orchestra. Wood soon left the band while Lynne and Bevan continued developing ELO music. The saga of "Do Ya" might have ended there but in 1975 Todd Rundgren covered the song with his group Utopia on their live album "Another Live". Hearing renewed interest in the song Lynne and ELO released their own version on "A New World Order" and pushed the song as a single. ELO rode "Do Ya" to a respectable top 25 Billboard Hot 100 position in 1976.

Ace Frehley is best known as the lead guitarist for the legendary band KISS along with bassist Gene Simmons drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Paul Stanley. Freehly pursued several solo projects during the 1980s-1990s. His second effort was titled "Trouble Walkin'"; the album received little praise from critics or record buyers alike and was quickly moved aside. Frehely's version of "Do-Ya" achieved neither fame nor great critical support.

Answer: Def Leppard

"Yeah" was Def Lepard's tenth album and included only remakes of the band's favorite tunes from the 1960s and 1970s done in the trademark high energy style that made Def Lepard famous. "Yeah!" reached number 16 on the US Billboard 200 Album Chart and 52 on the UK Album Chart. The band did not release any singles from the album but often perform these songs in their live performances. "Yeah!" includes a tribute to ELO and includes a cover of "10583 Overture".

"10583 Overture", like "Do Ya", was written by Jeff Lynne for The Move and was intended to be part of a future The Move album. Instead Lynne and Roy Wood reworked the song added a layered overdubbed cello and revised bass line and released the song as part of ELO's first album "Electric Light Orchestra" (US "No Answer"). The song was instantly popular in the UK and reached number nine on the UK Singles Chart and number five on the French SNEP Singles Chart. Ironically despite the success of the song and the "symphonic rock" sound used on "10538 Overture" Roy Wood left ELO soon after the release of the first album and created the short-lived glam rock band Wizzard.

Answer: Sweet Talkin' Woman

"Sweet Talkin' Woman" was recorded for the sixth ELO album "Out of the Blue" during the summer of 1977. The song originally started life as a very different more somber song with a slow violin cello tempo and was to be called "Dead End Street". The only lyrics that survived from that version can be heard in the song's third verse, "I've been livin' on a dead end street". Songwriter Jeff Lynne has never said why he was not satisfied with the song and recorded all new lyrics. Speculation has existed that Lynne did not want his song confused with the 1966 Kinks top five UK Singles song with the same name. Nevertheless "Sweet Talkin' Woman" was a hit across the world. Released as the third single from "Out of the Blue" "Sweet Talkin' Woman" reached number six on the UK Singles Chart and number seventeen on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Interestingly, though no litigation ensued, ELO supporters have long complained that when Robert "Mutt" Lange wrote the Huey Lewis and the News song "Do You Believe In Love" for their 1982 "Picture This" album he "sampled" (polite for ripped off) "Sweet Talkin' Woman". Supporters of this argument say the verses have the same melody and the opening lines of the songs are remarkably similar. For example, the opening of "Sweet Talkin" Woman" is "I was searching' (searchin') on a one-way street, I was hopin' (hopin') for a chance to meet, I was waitin' for the operator on the line..."; while "Do You Believe in Love" begins "I was walkin' (beat) down a one-way street, Just a lookin' (beat) for someone to meet, One woman who was looking for a man..." Whether coincidence or deliberate "Do You Believe in Love" was the first big hit for Huey Lewis reaching into the top ten in both the US and UK singles chart.

Five Iron Frenzy is a very well known Christian music group that is centered in and around Denver Colorado. The band is known for writing upbeat, positive, sarcastic lyrics in a ska music style and for elaborate concert shows. The band has a love of William Shatner and all things "Star Trek" and often dresses in uniforms worn by characters in the "Star Trek" universe. The band's drum heavy cover of "Sweet Talkin Woman" appears on the group's 1998 EP "Quality is Job 1". While never released as a single the version has strong support and was often part of the band's live shows.

Answer: Electric Light Orchestra Part II

Like many long running rock bands, ELO went through a variety of line ups. Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood along with Bev Bevan formed the band, but Wood left before the first album was recorded. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Lynne, Bevan and Richard Tandy formed the core of the band, with Lynne writing nearly all the songs. In 1986 Lynne decided to stop touring as part of ELO and the band essentially disbanded. In 1989 Bevan, who along with Lynne owned the naming rights to ELO, started touring with a new band he called Electric Light Orchestra Part II or ELO II.

ELO II never achieved the same success as ELO and served mostly as a nostalgia band using Phil Bates as a sound alike version of Jeff Lynne. Bates left ELO II in 1999 and was replaced by Parthenon Huxley or "P Hux". In November 1999 Bev Bevan left ELO II and in early 2000 he sold his share of the rights to the ELO name back to Jeff Lynne. The remaining members of ELO II were forced by Lynne to change their name to The Orchestra.

P Hux left The Orchestra in 2000 and continued his successful, if eclectic, solo career. In 2005 he released the album "Homemade Spaceship: The Music Of ELO Performed By P. Hux". This album included covers of twelve well known ELO songs in a stripped down, almost unplugged style, that contrasted sharply with the symphonic heavy over-dubbed original ELO style. The cover album won the 2006 "Just Plain Folks" Best Tribute/Cover album of the year. Just Plain Folks is a community of over 50,000 Music Industry Professionals that hosts the world's largest independent music awards. For 2006 over 25,000 albums were considered for awards.