B-side "After All" Genre Rock and roll | Format 7" single | |
Released 18 June 1983 (UK)
June 1983 (US) Recorded 1983 Wisseloord Studios, Hilversum, the Netherlands Length 3:49 (Album version)
3:07 (Single version)
3:10 (Double-album version) | ||
"Rock 'n' Roll Is King" is a song written and performed by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) released as a single from the 1983 album Secret Messages. With this song the band returned to their rock roots. It features a violin solo by Mik Kaminski.
The song went through many changes during recording and at one point was going to be called "Motor Factory" with a completely different set of lyrics. The single proved to be ELO's last UK top twenty hit single, and reached no. 19 in the US in August 1983.
"I sang on quite a few tracks; I sang on Rock 'N' Roll Is King. I played on that one, but it wasn't called that, it was something about something about working at Austin Longbridge! It was full of car plant sounds, you could hear it going clank, clank, clank, like somebody hitting a lathe with a hammer, and Jeff went away and made it into Rock 'n' Roll Is King, wiped off everything we'd done, no, there was still some backing left in there, It was much better how he finished it off than it was before." Dave Morgan (4 March 1999 – King Of The Universe #8)