Hate for Helen Reddy overcome by love for Jeff Lynne (ELO)
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Artist:
There's a great website, www.JeffLynneSongs.com, that lists complete credits and info for every project Jeff Lynne has been involved with. Jeff is, of course the mastermind behind Electric Light Orchestra, member of The Traveling Wilburys, member of The Move and Idle Race, and talent polymath.
John Lennon was a fan and once said in an interview "if you miss the Beatles, listen to ELO".
The website has helped me track down and acquire songs that I otherwise would not have known about including the one attached to this post. For some unknown reason, after completing massive ELO hit album Out of the Blue in 1977, Jeff gave this song to MOR chanteuse Helen Reddy, who quite frankly has always kinda made my skin crawl. Although Jeff did not produce the song for Helen, the producer must have stayed so close to the demo (anybody got a bootleg of it?) that it sounds very much like an ELO-era Lynne production. And I can get over Helen singing the lead. She released the track on a 1978 LP We'll Sing In The Sunshine
and, I guarantee, this will be the only Helen Reddy song I ever own. Since it is so obviously 90% Lynne and 10% Reddy I opted to tag it with Jeff's name to make sure it ends up on his page.
Locating MOG account...
Comments (13)
How dare you denigrate the talents of Ms Reddy. Jeff Lynn probably thought himself lucky to work with one who's talents can be spoken of in the same breath as Minnie Pearle or Alanis Morissette
You can't denigrate something that doesn't exist.
It's fun to discover and disinter (unbury) something beautiful from an unlikely location.
I don't know what Reddy's version of the song "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" is like, but I always liked Gale Garnett's hit version, even though I knew I was unhip to feel that way.
This is beautiful. The flourish and tada intro. The slide guitar into the first verse and the sliding strings that punctuate and support the lyrics throughout. The chunk chunk chunk chunk rhythm. Where she sings, "Go slowly through the night," I'm hearing "Queen of the Hours..." from the song of the same name. That cello bridge near the end sounds like "I heard the news today, oh boy!" from the Beatles' A DAY IN THE LIFE. I get no kick from champaigne, but I get a kick out of this. Regardless I have never left the radio on when a Helen Reddy song came on.
I got through the song, because of everything but Helen.
Helen had her place in the musical pantheon, Jeff saw this
For whatever reason, I've recently been especially attentive to string arrangements. This is a very, very good one. I dunno about Helen Reddy - for all her besetting sins (and a song like "Angie Baby" is so transgressive toward humanity - as opposed to society - that it verges on unforgivable even as it fascinates with its sheer perversity) did record a few most excellent songs. I wish I could remember what any others were. But, y'know, that happened back in the Seventies.....
I enjoyed a HR song or two back in the day. But I enjoyed ELO & Mr. Lyne's talents FAR more. This sounds so much like ELO it's funny. They could've included this on one of their albums.
I am eternally indebted to Spike1 for uncovering an addition to my Jeff Lynne collection!
My pleasure. Back at cha for posting the song.
Funny that you'd hate Helen Reddy...Jeff Lynne wrote "Poor Little Fool" especially for her as she was his favorite singer. Ironic, huh?
From what I knew, Jeff Lynne was a huge fan of Helen Reddy and wrote the song specifically for her. I don't know why it wasn't ever released as a single. It would have been a huge hit as ELO were having tremendous success. It would have also changed some people's perceptions of Helen Reddy's music as it made Derhmark above realize that she could actually pull a song off. I am a fan of both artists and thought it was great they came together. Kim Fowley, a rock producer, produced the 'We'll Sing In The Sunshine' lp which included 'Poor Little Fool'. Both artists - ELO and Helen Reddy were and still are very talented artists who came from a great era - 1970's.