Anyhow, one thing I’m a little puzzled by is why this was the big hit in the UK? On the one hand, Magic was the first single from the film and was ‘the hit’ in most places, and, indeed, it’s a much better pop-song. On the other hand, if the UK was going to be a little eccentric then why not go for the ONJ/Cliff duet Suddenly? That was the third single from the film and, though soppy, is lovely if you’re in a certain mood and definitely better than Xanadu (the song) which only really serves as shuddering memento of the film’s legendary awfulness:
3 or 4

These days, I think that this is good fun, but not quite good enough to ever make me really happy like the best ELO singles do.

*Not that ELO are particualrly channelling much disco here, rather an over-treated electronic prog-pop! Which may also explain a lot.

Roller disco is much more fun to do than to watch!

the secret text of all opera and musicals is the tale of how the project pays for itself: with wagner’s solution at one end (gesamtkunstwerk as the zeitgeist expression of the New Human) and “let’s put the show on here!” at the other

The writing was on the wall though. The trailer does seem a bit on the desperate side:

They probably deserved a number one during the 77-79 period that represents their commercial, and arguably, artistic peak (although 10538 Overture and Showdown are mighty fine too). But this particular track washes over me.

As for ONJ, I loved her later singles – “Magic” from later this year has a slinky groove. And “Landslide” is New Pop in exclesis. She’s on good form on this too.

Re 17: Nope, I don’t recall I’m Alive at all. But I remember how the follow up, All Over The World, goes right down to the vocoder bits.

Tom at no.7 makes great comment. We had that first Xanadu record in the house with the whips and the trumpets. Obv it belonged my dad who was born in 1949. Brilliant record. The first Xanadu puts this cheesy rubbish to shame. Lame cobblers.

I’d be intreeged to see the film now, but not as intreeeged as I would be to see Toomorrow, ONJ’s Don Kirshner-funded bomb from ten years earlier.

As for re-assessing ELO, 10538 Overture is up there with the Johnny Burnette Trio’s Train Kept A Rollin’ and the Flaming Groovies’ Shake Some Action as a record so powerful it can almost reduce me to tears every time I hear it.

Showdown is a wonderful three-day-week soundtrack 45, bleak and abundant, cellos overflowing: “it’s raining all over the world”.

Neither, it should be noted, feature the silly backing vocals that plague their late period.

I wish I could say this is so bad it’s good but it’s just bad. There’s something brazen about just how kitsch it is and I almost feel like it’s daring me to like it, testing the limits of how guilty I can take my pleasures.

Another one I don’t think I’ve heard since the day it dropped out of the chart, so obviously not one that oldies radio favours greatly. On one of his last Radio 1 shows Nicky Campbell had a great little interview with ONJ, getting her to admit to various flops while still keeping on very good terms with her.

I’ll have to confess that I’m not these days a great lover of ELO. Can’t remember quite the context in which it cropped up before (maybe the extensive G—– P——s discussion we had instead of talking about Gilbert O’Sullivan!) but I said then that I found much of their stuff overproduced and fairly lifeless (with some honourable exceptions) and thought it was a shame Jeff Lynne was the one to produce the “new” Beatles singles. In fact at around this period (time to don the Sandi Thom tin hat again) I quite enjoyed the band Sky – John Williams, Herbie Flowers et al. Their version of “Toccata” was a highlight of the 1980 chart for me, and their classical/commercial crossover had a greater lightness of touch. Saw them at Manchester Apollo in fact – they all sat down throughout the gig, and they did my favourite piece, “Connecting Rooms” which starts very quietly, straight after the interval when people were still loudly taking their seats.

*i mean apart from the fact that they are awesome, which i don’t take to be a prior consideration with consensus reassessments