Track Listing

1. Mr Blue Sky
2. Evil Woman
3. Don't Bring Me Down
4. Sweet Talkin' Woman
5. Shine
6. Turn To Stone
7. The Diary Of Horace Wimp
8. Confusion
9. Hold On Tight
10. Livin' Thing
11. Telephone Line
12. All Over The World
13. Wild West Hero
14. Showdown
15. Ma-Ma-Ma Belle
16. Xanadu
17. Rockaria!
18. Strange Magic
19. Alright
20. Rock and Roll Is King

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #457 in Music
• Released on: 2005-06-06
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Electric Light Orchestra were one of the biggest and most successful bands of the late 1970s, producing a massive string of hit singles and albums that almost any other band would envy. Their works have been cited as influences by such hip acts as Grandaddy and Super Furry Animals. Their frontman and leader Jeff Lynne has been the producer of choice for people like Paul McCartney, Tom Petty and George Harrison. From "Evil Woman", "Don't Bring Me Down" and "Mr Blue Sky" to "Livin' Thing" and "Hold On Tight", there are few duds amongst these 20 remastered tracks. ELO produced some of the biggest and best singles in rock & roll's history, and All Over The World: The Very Best Of ELO is an excellent reintroduction to this great band. Hopefully, this also signals the beginning of a long-overdue revival and re-evaluation. --Robert Burrow

CD Description
This 'greatest hits' collection brings together some of thefinest moments from Birmingham prog-rock outfit Electric Light Orchestra. Mixing Beatlesque pop with classical arrangements ELO scored a spate of UK top ten hits throughout the seventies, many of which are featured here.

Customer Reviews

Yet another compilation for this under rated band
It's really not cool to like ELO is it? Even now, after various film directors have used their music for soundtracks and admitted that they, like they really dug them all along, it's not going to do your street cred any good admitting that you think "Wild West Hero "is a wonderfully poignant song about the power of dreams or that "Turn To Stone" makes you so giddy with delight that you would kiss your Grand Mothers whiskery chin if only she was still alive. Guess what? I lost my rarely tangible grasp on any pretensions to street cred years ago so I feel quite secure in proclaiming that I think ELO are fantastic and that this album is a pretty good overview of their career.
That said it misses some real gems out. No "Can't Get It out Of My Head" or "10538 Overture" (The bands early years are sparsely represented here) or no "Ticket to the Moon". It's not a definitive collection by any means. There are far more complete over views of their career available. "Light Years" or "The Ultimate Collection", both double CD, s spring to mind. But for a single album this doesn't do too bad a job of representing what a terrific singles band they were, particularly in the mid 70,s, and showcasing what a superb and under rated songwriter Jeff Lynne was.
He was capable of writing some right clunkers though and it could be argued and I would certainly be up for the challenge, that one or two of the songs on this album hardly represent the band in their best light (No pun intended) No song that has rock n, roll in the title should ever be allowed to pollute the airwaves and The annoyingly jaunty "Rock And Roll Is King" with it's gibberish vocals is no exception. Summarily "Xanadu" is way too slick and polished, lacking the heady organic grace of their earlier material and signalling a transition to a more synthesised sound that would lead to the "Time" album. Though that did have some decent songs on it.
I loved the punk and post punk period; I love innovative challenging music or exciting fresh bands. But mainly I just love great song writing. Jeff Lynne wrote great songs and the band performed them superbly. I think there are better encapsulations of their output available, but this isn't bad and will hopefully lead to an overdue reappraisal of this most maligned of bands.

Another pointless rehash!
These may be harsh words but think about it. Since 2001 when the remastering programme of their original albums started and stopped abruptly this is has now been the second compilation to emerge. When this album emerged last year 2005 there was a large groan from the ELO fan community. This was due in part to the feeling of deja vu but also that the album was not wholly representative of the bands hits. Huge hits such as Last Train to London (No.6, 1979) and even more inexplicably the original No.1 version of Xanadu sung by Olivia Newton John (here substituted by Jeff Lynne's lame "re-interpretation")were left off. Lesser hits such as Rock and Roll Is King (No.13, 1983) were put in their place. And then to really rub it in the inclusion of Alright ( from 2001's ropey, woeful Zoom album)which like it's parent album did'nt make an impression on the charts anywhere in the world. There's also a question mark over the remastering of this album. Having heard the tracks on it I have to say that the remastering on them sounds substandard. If you have the Flashback boxset from 2000 which was remastered by Jeff and others take a listen to it. The tracks on that release really come alive and stand out. On this release they sound limp and lifeless. So to sum up if you want a significant ELO compilation the best one is still Flashback. It's 3 cd's of pure aural ELO joy, has all the hits (though none from Xanadu) and has the best remastering of all the ELO releases (even the 2001 reissues!). But what is really needed rather than another compilaton is for Sony BMG to reissue the remaining albums with bonus material. It's been far too long!!

very good ELO stuff!
This album is very good, and I am a young guy who thinks these are very good and produce some good stuff! I bought this for my dad but I like it also! I heard that these were a very under rated band, well how come, most of this album is better than some of the music today that is in the top 10! Anyways, buy it and try it.