ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA
ALBUMS - UK, USA & Europe

The first more official project of Sony Music UK, since the 1992 “ELO's Greatest Hits Volume 2”, appeared in 1997 under the title “Light Years: The Very Best Of Electric Light Orchestra”. Epic 489039 2 is a double CD compilation with 75 minutes playing time on each CD. “Light Years” contains 38 songs, among them all 35 single tracks, released on 33 UK singles, plus Do Ya, which in many other countries was released on single alternatively to Rockaria!.

 

The B-sides Across The Border, from the second never published E.L.O. EP, and Illusions In G-Major complete the album. Responsible for the project was Rob Caiger, who also wrote for the first time the liners notes for an E.L.O. release. As the first genuine E.L.O. Singles compilation, it was published in the context of the “25 Light Years” campaign, which was likewise initiated by Rob. The 25th Anniversary of the first E.L.O. single release was also supported by E.L.O. Part II, with their “25 Light Years Tour”.

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Most of the songs were not specially worked on for their single release and are thus identical to the album versions. The single versions of Evil Woman and Strange Magic differ only in the detail that both orchestra transitions are missing. That applies accordingly to Shine A Little Love, where the backwards-played choir singing is missing, and the missing album intro and outro on “Rock 'n' Roll Is King”. Although the count-in intro of Jeff is missing on the single version of Four Little Diamonds, here probably the UK 12"-version was used by mistake, which is identical to the albums version.

 

On All Over The World the babble of voices at the end of the song is faded out immediately. On the single version of Rockaria! only the false start of Mary Thomas in the opera part is missing. 10538 Overture is simply faded out earlier and ends at 4:00. Nightrider is faded in later during the synthesizer intro and faded out earlier in the string part, ending at 3:44.

 

The same goes for the Twilight single version, which is here on “Light Years” - probably due to the absence of the original master tapes - faded in much too quietly and is at the end also fading too far into the next song. The Secret Messages single version, likewise faded in later and faded out earlier at the end, is exactly like on the single. The subtitle “Special version from the LP…” meant only that this song is available in a longer version on the album and not that it is a remix. 

Showdown exists as an earlier faded-out single version on United Artists, but however not from EMI. Thus the “Single Version” of Showdown is the complete version of the song, which was actually recorded as a single track only. The first real single version, cut at the mixing desk is Roll Over Beethoven with 4:30 minutes. Apart from the harmonium intro and second string intro, the counter theme is missing three times, and after the cello solo the song directly goes into the third and fourth verse, followed directly by the second E-Guitar solo.

 

It is thus the usual well-known single version of Roll Over Beethoven. Can't Get It Out Of My Head was edited too. After the first verse it goes right into the second chorus and in the bridge the short Moog / drums duel is missing. This version was used on all first releases of the single.

The only remixed single version is Ma-Ma-Ma Belle, at which after the third line in the second chorus an ascending cello tone follows. The song then continues directly with the second intro riff of the third verse. The version ends with the second called “mother” at 3:23. Here on “Light Years” the reverb is missing on the cello tone and the song already ends at 3:19 at “do-round up”. The differences are simple to explain, as this song had to be redone in 1997 for the “Light Years” compilation too. Rob explained back then that it had not been possible to find all original master tapes of the single versions.

 

In addition one can assume that for many singles no separate single master tapes were manufactured, but the master foils were mastered directly off the album version, which would also explain, why in different countries the fade-ins and fade-outs do often differ.

 

A 10-page folding sheet shows all 23 single sleeves released in the UK, the Secret Messages Picture Disc and also the Cover of the “The ELO EP”. In the liner notes Rob Caiger talks about the single career of E.L.O. in the UK, and comments the UK chart placings.

“Light Years: The Very Best Of Electric Light Orchestra” appeared in 1999 as double MiniDisc (489039 8) too. Newly introduced as late as 1993, the format with a magneto-optic disc could however not compete in sales with the CD. With its reduced data rate, it was perfect for concert recordings, but there was no reason to prefer it to the CD. Anyhow, Sony as inventor of the format spent much effort and designed especially for “Light Years” a double MD case.

 

The booklet of the 2 x CD was completely taken over for the 2 x MD, and adapted to the more elongated format. A great and rare thing. The 2 x MD edition in a double case also contains the complete booklet information.

 

All in all “Light Years” offered a successful, because complete compilation of all UK Singles and marked a turning point in the compilation publication politics of E.L.O., although up to a central co-ordination of all the new publications and of the compilation albums still some years had to pass by.

 

But the name Rob Caiger could from now on no longer excluded at E.L.O. publications. As European publication “Light Years” appeared in the entire European Union, with the exception of Italy, Spain, Denmark and Sweden. These countries published their own releases.

 

The success of the 1997 compilation "Light Years - The Very Best Of Electric Light Orchestra" was apparently even greater than previously suspected. Epic 489039 0 had been published by Sony Music Russia with holographic authentication stickers and subtitle 'Cyrillic Collection'.

 

The CDs themselves are in black and wear next to Latin also Cyrillic characters. The booklet was reduced to a 4-page leaflet, but carries all the important information about the song titles and production of the compilation. The difference to the other published editions is in the order-code, ending with a 0 instead of 2 or 9.

 

The Russian Sublabel is called X-Cellent, and it also does not lack the indication that this issue may be sold only in CIS. All versions are like the tracks on the western releases. Nevertheless, it is nice to see that Sony licenses official products for the countries of the former Soviet bloc.