B-side "One Summer Dream" | Format 7" single | |
Released 28 January 1978 (UK)
June 1978 (US) Recorded 1977 at Musicland Studios, Munich Genre Pop rock, art rock, progressive pop Length 5:06
3:45 (Japanese 7") | ||
"Mr. Blue Sky" is a song by British rock group 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 and number 35 in the United States. The song was played as a wake-up call to astronaut Christopher Ferguson on Day 3 of STS-135, the final mission of Space Shuttle Atlantis.
Contents
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.
The song's arrangement has been called "Beatlesque", bearing similarities to Beatles songs "Martha My Dear" and "A Day in the Life".
Arrangement
The arrangement makes prominent use of a cowbell sound, although this is credited on the album to percussionist Bev Bevan, as that of a "fire extinguisher".
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.
The song features a heavily vocoded voice singing the phrase "Mr. Blue Sky". A second vocoded segment at the end of the song was often interpreted as "Mister 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. This was confirmed by Jeff Lynne on 3 October 2012 on The One Show.
Appearances in other media
The song is used in the films Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Role Models, Wild Mussels, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Magic Roundabout, The Game Plan, Martian Child, The Invention of Lying, Megamind, and Battle of the Year as well as the television shows Doctor Who, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, American Dad!, Divorce, Revolution and Waterloo Road.
Jeff Lynne version
Jeff Lynne re-recorded the song and other ELO tracks in his own home studio in 2012. The resulting album (Mr. Blue Sky: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra) was released under the ELO name.
Music video
A music video has been released in late 2012 via the official ELO website and YouTube, a colourful animation directed by Michael Patterson and Candace Reckinger with animation sequences designed and animated by University of Southern California students.