"Mr. Blue Sky" is a song by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), featured on the band's seventh studio album Out of the Blue (1977). Written and produced by frontman Jeff Lynne, the song forms the fourth and final track of the "Concerto for a Rainy Day" suite on side three of the original double album. "Mr. Blue Sky" was the second single to be taken from Out of the Blue, peaking at number 6 in the UK Singles Chart[4] and number 35 in the US Billboard Charts.[5]
Promotional copies were released on blue vinyl, like the album from which the single was issued. Due to its popularity and frequent use in multiple television shows and movies, it has sometimes been described as the band's signature song.[6]
Inspiration
In a BBC Radio interview, Lynne talked about writing "Mr. Blue Sky" after locking himself away in a Swiss chalet and attempting to write ELO's follow-up to A New World Record:
It was dark and misty for 2 weeks, and I didn't come up with a thing. Suddenly the sun shone and it was, 'Wow, look at those beautiful Alps.' I wrote Mr. Blue Sky and 13 other songs in the next 2 weeks.[7]
Lynne also said:
I suppose this is my most well-known song. Everybody tells me something different about it. It’s even got crazy appeal to kids since it’s like a nursery rhyme. I remember writing the words down. I was at a chalet in the mountains of Switzerland, and it was all misty and cloudy all the way around. I didn’t see any countryside for the first four days or so, and then everything cleared, and there was this enormous view forever, and the sky was blue.[8]
The arrangement makes prominent use of a cowbell-like sound,[13] which is credited on the album, to percussionist Bev Bevan, as that of a "fire extinguisher". When the song is performed live, a drumstick strikes the side of a fire extinguisher, producing the sound.
Describing the song for the BBC, Dominic King said:
Lots of Gibb Brothers' vocal inflexions and Beatles' arrangement quotes (Penny Lane bell, Pepper panting, Abbey Road arpeggio guitars). But this fabulous madness creates its own wonder – the bendy guitar solo, funky cello stop-chorus, and the most freakatastic vocoder since Sparky's Magic Piano. Plus, the musical ambush on "way" at 2.51 still thrills. And that's before the Swingle Singers/RKO Tarzan movie/Rachmaninoff symphonic finale gets underway. Kitsch, yet truly exhilarating.[14]
The song features a heavily vocoded voice singing the phrase "Mr. Blue Sky". However, listeners often interpreted a second vocoded segment at the end of the song as "Mr. Blue Sky"; it is actually "Please turn me over" as it is the end of side three, and the listener is being instructed to flip the LP over.[15] Jeff Lynne confirmed this on 3 October 2012 on The One Show.
Critical reception
AllMusic's Donald A. Guarisco considered "Mr. Blue Sky" a "miniature pop symphony" and a "multi-layered pop treat that was a pure Beatles pastiche", saying that "the music divides its time between verses that repeat the same two notes to hypnotic effect a la 'I Am the Walrus' and an effervescent, constantly-ascending chorus". Guarisco also pointed out other references to the Beatles, such as "the staccato bassline [recalling] the chorus of 'Hello Goodbye' and pounding piano lines and panting background vocals [recalling] the midsection of 'A Day in the Life'".[16] Music critic Nick DeRiso identified several references to Beatles' songs, including "Hello, Goodbye", "I Am the Walrus", "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "A Day in the Life."[17]
Billboard described the beat as "catchy" and said that the song builds from a "thumping intro" to a "harmonic operatic" ending.[18]Cash Box said that the song "features a characteristically full sound and effective use of breaks" and that "fast pace, airy singing and strings provide musical dramatics."[19]Record World said that "this up-tempo tune guarantees Lynne's legend as both writer and producer and shows off ELO's unique sound."[20]
Ultimate Classic Rock critic Michael Gallucci rated it ELO's best song.[21]Classic Rock History critic Brian Kachejian rated it as ELO's 2nd best song, highlighting the "bouncing piano groove at the beginning of the song that is one of the coolest rock and pop licks you have ever heard."[22]Stereogum contributor Ryan Reed also rated it as ELO's 2nd best song, saying that although it was released on the album as part of "Concerto for a Rainy Day", it actually "functions best as a stand-alone art-pop epic, a sort of engorged 'Penny Lane' – built on stomping pianos, manic cowbell...and an octave-spanning choral vocal arrangement."[23]
In 2022 Lynne listed it as one of his nine favorite ELO songs.[24]
The song was the popular choice to be the theme song for the NBC television show, The Office. However, it had already been chosen to be the theme for another show on the network, LAX, that premiered the year before in 2004.[27] The song was also used in the British television show Doctor Who. It was also featured during the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics, the awards ceremony following the 2011 Football League Cup Final, and the closing ceremony of the 2018 Commonwealth Games from the Gold Coast, in a promotion for the 2022 Games, which was held in Birmingham - with the track used to celebrate ELO originating from the city.[28] The song played as "completely different" characters and props, which included flying bicycles and a giant cannon populated the stage and set the mood for Monty Python's Eric Idle and his musical appearance during the Closing Ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012.
The song was also featured in Just Dance 2022, albeit covered by The Sunlight Shakers.[29]
Jeff Lynne re-recorded the song and other ELO tracks in his home studio in 2012. The resulting album, Mr. Blue Sky: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra, was released under the ELO name. A difference that this version has is that it doesn't include the ending orchestral piece.[59] An earlier version of the song with different vocal takes was heard on the 2010 film, Megamind, and in American Dad! during the episode Fart-Break Hotel from 2011.
^Pitchfork Staff (22 August 2016). "The 200 Best Songs of the 1970s". Pitchfork. Retrieved 13 October 2022. ...but ELO really committed to the symphonic concept without sacrificing hooks, as proggier bands did.
