This includes hits such as "Evil Woman", "Livin' Thing", "Telephone Line", "Mr. Blue Sky", "Don't Bring Me Down", and "Hold On Tight".

Later that year, Lynne, Wood, and Bev Bevan formed the band ELO as a side project to which they intended to devote most of their energies, out of their desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones.

Following Wood's departure from ELO in 1972, Lynne assumed sole leadership of the band and wrote, arranged, and produced virtually all of its subsequent records.

Lynne co-produced the Beatles' Anthology reunion singles from John Lennon demos, "Free as a Bird" (1995), "Real Love" (1996), and "Now and Then" (2023).

Lynne contributed many songs to the Move's last two albums while formulating, with Roy Wood and Bev Bevan, a band built around a fusion of rock and classical music – a project which would eventually become the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO).

[12] Thereafter followed a succession of band personnel changes and increasingly popular albums: ELO 2 and On the Third Day (both 1973), Eldorado (1974), and Face the Music (1975).

By A New World Record (1976), Lynne had almost developed the roots of the group into a more complex and unique pop-rock sound mixed with studio strings, layered vocals, and tight, catchy pop singles.

Lynne's now almost complete creative dominance as producer, songwriter, arranger, lead singer and guitarist could make ELO appear to be an almost solo effort.

Bassist Kelly Groucutt's distinctive voice mixed with Lynne's to produce the classic ELO harmonic vocal sound.

The pinnacle of ELO's chart success and worldwide popularity was the expansive double album Out of the Blue (1977), which was largely conceived in a Swiss chalet during a two-week writing marathon.

In order to recreate the complex instrumental textures of their albums, the band used pre-recorded supplemental backing tracks in live performances.

The album is primarily associated with its two disco-flavoured singles ("Shine a Little Love" and "Last Train to London") and with the title's word play on "disco" and "very".

[16] However, the remaining seven non-disco tracks on the album reflected Lynne's range as a pop-rock songwriter, including a heavy, mid-tempo rock anthem ("Don't Bring Me Down") which uses a drum loop.

13), and the title track "Xanadu", featuring Olivia Newton-John joining ELO on lead vocals, which reached number one in the UK (US No.

Lynne took the band in a somewhat different direction with the science-fiction themed album Time (1981), reaching number one for two weeks in the UK, producing the second Top 3 single in less than two years.

Following a marginally successful tour, Lynne kept this general approach with Secret Messages (1983) and a final contractually-obligated ELO album Balance of Power (1986).

In contrast to the dense, boomy, baroque sound of ELO, Lynne's post-ELO studio work has tended toward more minimal, acoustic instrumentation and a sparse, "organic" quality that generally favours light room ambience and colouration over artificial reverb, especially on vocals.

[12] The latter was a successful comeback album for Harrison, released in 1987, featuring the popular singles "Got My Mind Set on You", "When We Was Fab" (appearing in the video) and "This Is Love", the last two of which were co-written by Lynne.

Lynne's association with Harrison led to the 1988 formation of the Traveling Wilburys, a studio "supergroup" that also included Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison and resulted in two albums (Vol.

The following year he produced two songs on Roy Orbison's posthumous album King of Hearts, including the single "I Drove All Night".

[12] Lynne's work in the 1990s also includes production of a 1993 album for singer-songwriter Julianna Raye titled Something Peculiar and production or songwriting contributions to albums by Roger McGuinn (Back from Rio) and Joe Cocker (Night Calls), songs by Aerosmith ("Lizard Love"), Tom Jones ("Lift Me Up"), Bonnie Tyler ("Time Mends a Broken Heart"), the film Still Crazy, Hank Marvin ("Wonderful Land" and "Nivram") and Et Moi ("Drole De Vie").

In the year 2000, Lynne reactivated ELO and released the retrospective box set Flashback, containing many newly finished, previously unreleased tracks.

[12] The album featured guest appearances by Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Richard Tandy, with Lynne multi-tracking a majority of the instruments and vocals.

While a live performance was taped at CBS Television City over two consecutive nights and shown on PBS (with subsequent DVD release), the tour itself was cancelled.

[12] Lynne was heavily involved in the memorial Concert for George, held at London's Royal Albert Hall in November 2002, which also featured Traveling Wilburys member Petty.

[29] In a Reuters article on 23 April 2009, Lynne said that he had been working on the follow-up to his 1990 solo debut album Armchair Theatre with a possible tentative release date of "later this year".

[31] On 31 December 2011, Brian Williams reported on NBC New Year's Eve with Carson Daly that "2012 releases will include rare new work from Jeff Lynne.

[39] Never particularly enthusiastic for live performance even in his younger days, Lynne has called this event "easily the best concert I've ever been involved with".

[44] In September, 2016, shortly after the European dates, ELO played three shows at the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, with full orchestra and fireworks.

[46] On 12 September 2018, Jeff Lynne's ELO began a tour throughout Europe including dates in Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Mannheim, Vienna, Amsterdam, Nottingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Birmingham, Leeds, London, Liverpool, Dublin, and Belfast.