B-side "Across the Border" Format 7" single Length 4:47 | Released November 22, 1980 Genre Pop rock | |
Recorded 1980, Musicland Studios, Munich, Germany | ||
"Don't Walk Away" is a song by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). It is featured in the 1980 feature film Xanadu in an animated sequence by Don Bluth.
Contents
The song also appears on the soundtrack album Xanadu. It was the last single released from the album.
The song is being performed as part of the 2007 Broadway musical Xanadu.
The song is written in a standard key signature of C Major and was number 21 hit in the UK.
Across the Border
"Across the Border" is a song written by Jeff Lynne and performed by Electric Light Orchestra.
It is track 4 on their highly successful 1977 album Out of the Blue. In 1980 the track became the B-side to the hit single "Don't Walk Away".
The song opens with a steam train and horn sound effect, then switching into a small bridge with the violin and the moog, then switching to an upbeat rock song, with the opening verse being reminiscent of The Beach Boys track "Heroes and Villains". Mik Kaminski features on violin, one of only three songs he performed on Out of the Blue and the song also features a Latin mariachi style brass section.
"Listen out for the train noises first, also some Spanish style trumpets. Big finish with much phasing on the drums." - Bev Bevan (1977 - Japanese Out of the Blue LP liner notes)
EP
In 1980 after the release of the UK box set Four Light Years the song was intended to be the lead off track on a proposed Across the Border EP which also included "Don't Bring Me Down", "Telephone Line" and "Mr Blue Sky". For reasons unknown the EP was withdrawn and the intended EP artwork which matched the parent box set was used as the slip cover for their 1982 double A-side single "Here Is the News/Ticket to the Moon" instead. The EP version of the song made its debut on the 1997 compilation album Light Years.
Cover versions
A successful foreign version was the Italian Mi mancherai ("I will miss you"), recorded in 1981 by Sicilian singer Marcella Bella as a theme for a popular TV show, on air on Sunday afternoons for Rete Uno (today's RaiUno). The Italian text was written by Giorgio Calabrese.