Format 7" single | ||
B-side "Showdown (Live)" (UK)
"New World Rising" (US) Released February 1976 (US)
June 1976 (UK) Recorded 1975 at Musicland Studios, Munich Genre Symphonic rock
art rock
pop rock Length 4:29 (Album version)
4:06 (UK single edit)
3:20 (US single edit) | ||
"Strange Magic" is a song written and performed by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). It was released on their 1975 Face the Music album.
Contents
Released as a single in 1976, the single was edited in the US, whereas in the UK the song appeared as the album cut minus the orchestral intro. The US single edit can be found on the remastered Face the Music released in September 2006. The song was also included on the band's 1978 The ELO EP. A remastered version was included on the box set Flashback in 2000. The 'weeping' guitar lick was provided by keyboardist Richard Tandy while Jeff Lynne played a 12-string acoustic guitar fed through a phase shifter.
Jeff Lynne version
Jeff Lynne re-recorded the song in his own home studio in 2012. It was released in a compilation album with other re-recorded ELO songs, under the ELO name.
Other uses
The song appears in the film The Virgin Suicides featuring the song in the homecoming dance scene but is not on the soundtrack album.
Part of this song, sung by Darren Hayes, was featured on the film Ella Enchanted, but only the chorus that sings "Strange Magic" is heard when dealing with the lyrics.
The song was performed as part of the 2007 Broadway musical Xanadu.
Steve Rushton covered the song for Wizards of Waverly Place.
The song can be heard on an episode of the sitcom That '70s Show.
The song is also featured in the film Hunky Dory (2012).
Protagonist Danny Castellano from The Mindy Project puts on a record of the song in an episode from the third season.
The song is also featured in the film Strange Magic (2015).