I am sick of ELO being bashed as the poor man's Beatles, as sappy, as "disco-flavored violin trash," and as infantile muzak. All of these criticisms are from people who haven't bothered to listen to ELO from beginning to last and who are too obtuse to realize that Jeff Lynne is a musical genius (and no, I don't use that word lightly). Yes, his lyrics are banal, but with this type of music, who on earth cares? The lyrics to "Ob La Di, Ob La Da" are trite too, but with such catchy music, one can overlook the banality of the words.

There are many stellar songs curiously omited, including ELO's most underrated (and, I think, best) song, "Nightrider." And how about "Four Little Diamonds??" The omissions alone bring the rating down to four stars

I bought my first ELO single when I was 10 years old and I never looked back. If you've read this far, you're a fan like me and you will devour this set. Long live this sappy, trite, banal band... I still love 'em forever!


Great single disc...but should have been two discs   November 19, 2004
 30 out of 32 found this review helpful

Like others, I am disappointed that Sony seems to give ELO a "leftovers" kind of treatment here with this somewhat perfunctory career overview. A second disc would have certainly been merited and could have contained many more classic "essential" cuts. But then, I suppose, we would have had just another repeat of STRANGE MAGIC, that wonderful 1995 two-disc collection of ELO's best tracks. So, once we get past the fact that many "essential" cuts are missing here and the packaging is a little skimpy, this is a fine collection of songs...all of them are superlative, save for the disastrous "edited" version of "Roll Over Beethoven." This collection certainly makes the case for ELO being one of the premier art pop bands of the 1970s and 1980s. ELO maestro Jeff Lynne is rightly considered a genius in the studio, and it's easy to see why with tracks such as the crunchy power pop of "Do Ya," the proto synth symphony "Turn to Stone," the lovely lilt of "Strange Magic," the orchestral rock of "Mr. Blue Sky," and the lush wistful ballad, "Can't Get it Out of My Head." If you must have only one single "best of" disc, this is probably the best way to go. But, also be on the lookout for outstanding bargain collections such as ELO CLASSICS and ELO SHINE ON. Of course, as mentioned, STRANGE MAGIC is superior with it's two discs and buffed up packaging. Best of all is FLASHBACK, a 3-disc set featuring numerous previously unreleased gems. (The rare AFTERGLOW is another great 3-CD set, though the sound is inferior.) Happy listening!


Close but no cigar!   August 12, 2003
 13 out of 15 found this review helpful

I have loved E.L.O. eversince I can remember and this collection (which is remastered quite well) cannot call itself "essential" as it lacks many radio hits like "Showdown", "Last Train To London", "10538 Overture", "Fire On High", and "Ma Ma Ma Belle", among others which can be found on a 2 cd set released in 1995 titled "Strange Magic: The Best of Electric Light Orchestra". It's sold at a really low price and has the basic essential songs. To me essential also includes other wonderful songs that are missing in both of the aforementioned such as "One Summer Dream", "Starlight", "It's Over", and "Shangri-la" which can be found in the expansive 3 CD set titled 'Flashback". That set, which is not cheap, is the one to have, although the is some filler. As usual, I decided to take my favorites from the 3 CD set and ALMOST managed to fit them into one CD.

In a nutshell, this release is ok for the casual ELO fan, but for one who wants a better picture go with 1995's "Strange Magic: The Best of Electric Light Orchestra" as it give you much more for a very reasonable price. "Afterglow" is not reasonably priced but I am glad that I bought it and now I have taken what is THE ESSENTIAL COLLECTION FOR ME and put then in one CD. A few did not fit, but none were essential to me and I can always get to them by listening to "Flashback".

ELO = 5 stars, Sony gets 1 star for releasing so many versions of E.L.O.'s greatest hits. By no means should my 3-star review give the impression that this is a bad release, it's just that there are better ones out there and it's time that SONY, as well as many other record companies, especially Universal with it's "20th Century Masters", stop releasing CDs that exclude so many songs and also have less than acceptable inserts.

The music industry is alive and kicking and in E.L.O. terms a "Livin' thing", but please keep in mind that trying to sell similar products time after time makes buyers weary. If CD's were priced more reasonably priced and shoddy products were kept to a minimum , the industry would find itself as healthy as ever. Yes, times have changed and there are many other entertainment choices fighting for our attention, but just because the old model does not work, let's not be quick to assume that loses are due to burning of CDs. The vast majority, if not all, of the CDs that I burn are purchases that I have made but want to tailor to my likes.


The best single disc greatest ... not the best period   November 15, 2003
 13 out of 13 found this review helpful

I have always loved ELO since I was a kid and am familiar with all of the assorted boxes/2 discs/single disc greatest that are out there. Let's determine a couple of things quickly.

-This is most by far now the best single disc collection by the band you could have; this makes the 1979 greatest extinct.
-The remastering is fabulous; all of these songs sound better here than on any prior collection.
-Of course, there will be many missing songs for the fanatics that they will deem "essential".

The only thing I would suggest is to get the 2 disc "Strange Magic" collection which contains nearly everything. However, this is now my favorite of all the collections. This one is more hit heavy than any of the others ... tracks 1 through 10 are amazing with the way they were sequenced here.

Some may dispute what I wrote here, but this essential ELO is worth having by any fan of this outstanding band. For an hours worth of pure pleasure play this straight through. Nothing but strange magic, I'll tell ya ... :)


Good quality, short on "essential" songs.   July 16, 2003
 12 out of 12 found this review helpful

As a lifelong ELO fan, I think this is a decent but definitely lacking collection of radio hits. Songs like "10538 Overture", "Fire On High", "Showdown" and "Ma Ma Ma Belle" should be included in any collection deemed "Essential". While this CD is of better quality due to improved re-mastering; a better representation of ELO's hits and catalog is the 2-disk "Strange Magic: The Best of Electric Light Orchestra". But again, for some reason, that collection omits the sports-arena anthem "Fire on High". Also, do not take the liner notes in this CD as gospel; because there are some factual errors (albeit minor ones).

With all do respect to "A Music Fan", I would like to recommend readers dismiss his/her review on this CD as it paints an incorrect portrayal of my favorite band. This user wrote that ELO synthesized all their strings. This is incorrect. Their earliest band members included veterans of the London Symphony Orchestra (on this CD they play the strings on "Roll Over Beethoven"). Some tracks on this album ("I Can't Get It Out of My Head", "Mr. Blue Sky") were recorded with a full symphonic orchestra. On their remastered album "Eldorado", Jeff Lynne comments that you can hear the union-orchestra members packing up their instruments before the recording session was complete because they wouldn't work one second later than they had to! In later years, (mostly the 80's) ELO did use more synthesizers and less strings; but they NEVER attempted to mislead anyone about what instruments were being used. Another interesting fact is that ELO's use of strings on stage helped to bring about great technological advances in the use of electronic pick-ups on classical instruments. "A Music Fan" claims his favorite song by them is "The Ace"; but there is no song recorded by ELO with that name. Subsequently I must urge Amazon.com users to dismiss that post as inaccurate and uninformed.