The Essential Electric Light Orchestra

I already had 1 ELO greatest hits CD but it was only 1 CD and has about 15 songs on it. I am very impressed with this one. There is a lot of great music here that I had not heard before plus all of their great hits also.

After reading reviews in order not to be to repetitive I realized there are 2 "Essential Electric Light Orchestra" C.D.'s being reviewed !!! This review refers to the 2 disc newer release!!! When ever a publisher or producer is pressed with the task of making a "Greatest Hits" or "Best Of" with a band that has had huge success & is prolific having a massive song catalogue it becomes a daunting task! I chose this 2 disc collection of E.L.O.'s hit songs because it appears to be the most complete collection available. It doe's a great job covering their past hits & manages to include some of their comeback material. With E.L.O.'s comeback having some great songs, songs I would consider instant classic's I could easily see in the near future the necessity to create two double disc "Greatest Hits Volume #1 & #2". As far as the sound quality of this C.D. "The Essential Electric Light Orchestra" it is great!!! I don't know if they digitally remastered from the original recordings, but I can tell you that when played on a good stereo system you can hear everything crisp and clear & the voice & instruments are recorded on different tracks coming from your center speaker & right & left & rear channel's so during certain songs you get that swirling effect. The music is not just louder but very clear in high fidelity & very well mixed. This is especially important when dealing with a band like E.L.O. who are well recognized for the layering of sound & the diverse cacophony of sounds they throw at you. I guess it all depends on what level of E.L.O. fan you are. I considered going box set but I think this particular collection of songs along with a couple of their newer C.D.s' will satisfy my E.L.O. needs.

It is GREAT !!!!!! I LOVE THE WHOLE CD !!!!!!

Everything as advertised by vendor, packaged well and fast shipping. CD plays really good - no skipping, would definitely order from seller again.

ELO is one of the most underrated groups in rock history and Jeff Lynne is one of the most talented singer/songwriter/producer/arrangers to ever grace the music industry. I've always liked ELO, but I never heard anything more than the usual hits until recently. I'm an OTR truck driver and I spend a lot of time listening to music on YouTube and just recently decided to go back and listen to everything ELO released and this collection has almost every song I wanted to have on the road with me, with a few exceptions. I did a lot of research to decide which compilation to get and found that this is the only one that starts at the beginning and goes chronologically through their history, with the exception of the 2001 version of Xanadu. This is also the only one I could find with 4 of the 5 songs from Xanadu on it back to back. I still can't figure out why there's not one single compilation with Fire On High on it. That is always on the radio, but not on any greatest hits albums. This collection has about every other hit they've ever had and then some. My only complaint is that they only have the edited versions of 10538 Overture, Roll Over Beethoven, Can't Get It Out Of My Head and Nightrider. Other than that, this is an excellent representation of ELO's music catalog and is great driving music. I would definitely recommend this to any fan of ELO.

Excellent Collection. Well thought out and purposeful song selections touching upon Electric Light Orchestra's vast array of available music.

Grew up with ELO in the 1970's and 1980's. WILL NEVER get TIRED of LISTENING to ELO. All the songs on the 2 CD'S from the 1970's, 1980's and the two songs from 2006 and 2007 are GOOD.!! Even though I have not seen ELO in concert - listening to this CD is like being at a concert (just not able to see them in person).

This is the second time Sony/BMG/Legacy has upgraded a deserving act's "Essential" entry from one to two discs (the venerable O'Jays were the first). At one disc, too many hits were left off. This version includes every chart hit except "Daybreaker" and the Olivia Newton-John version of "Xanadu" (here it's Jeff Lynne singing). This means that unlike the "All Over the World" CD you get "I'm Alive" and "Can't Get It Out of My Head", and unlike "Strange Magic" you get "All Over the World" and "I'm Alive". Several album cuts and non-hit singles are also included among the 37 tracks here, such as "Rockaria", "Ma-Ma-Ma-Belle", "10538 Overture", "The Diary of Horace Wimp", "Don't Walk Away", and "Wild West Hero". It might have been a good idea to actually include the ON-J version of "Xanadu", since that was a top ten hit; however, the version here is interesting (and teaming with Newton-John didn't please some ELO fans who felt it was some kind of "sell-out"). Overall I think this new package does the best job of compiling most of ELO's hits and highlights. And at this moment, it's only about $3 more than the single-disc version! I would add that the booklet gives us no liner notes, only a photo of the band on stage and the timings/songwriter/publishing of each song. Since all but "Roll Over Beethoven" were written by Lynne and most of the publishing is by some variation of EMI, that wasn't too helpful. An indication of which album (CD) each song came from would have been preferable.

Großartig! Ich hatte ganz vergessen, wie toll die waren!

It's ELO! Music as good now as it was when the singles were first released. Excellent sound quality. A must for people just getting into ELO. Highly recommended.

I’ve been looking for this CD for a while. So glad I finally found it. Delivered quickly. Great price. Very happy.

Great CD. arrived on time

Que des hits, des superbes morceaux