Customer Reviews

Ole Elo

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm bias. I'm a huge ELO fan. Having said that, you'll do better with other ELO releases than this one. It's audio quality leaves something to be desired and it has the SHORT version of "Roll Over Beethoven", which is a crime. The original vinyl version had the full-length version when it was first released. So many people complained that their record player would eject before the track was finished (the recorded grooves were very close to the label), that the label put the short version on it after the first pressing. The label COULD have corrected that on the CD release. Look to the 3-CD set "Flashback" or the newly issued re-masters of the original ELO albums for better quality. This is for die-hard ELO collectors only.

This is a great sampling of ELO's early and mid-70s career, before they got slicker and hugely popular. But why oh why did they have to ruin this CD by only putting in the horrible radio-length edit of their wonderful 8-minutes-plus magnum opus, "Roll Over Beethoven?" This is one of the great goes-on-forever jams in rock and roll and clearly it would have fit on the CD. What's really embarassing is that my VINYL version (you know, vinyl, more limiting technology, can't put as much on the record)DOES have the full-length song! What a waste . . .

This was my third ELO album to own; I picked it up in 1976, and it introduced me to some of ELO's wonderful earlier material. Some of those songs, while not always polished to the later standard ELO sheen, still resonate with superb songcraft and daring innovation. "10538 Overture" (from NO ANSWER, 1972) sounds like a close cousin of "Strawberry Fields Forever." "Kuiama" (from 1973's "II") is a sad, lumbering prog-rock masterpiece, though it has been edited on this album. The version of "Roll Over Beethoven" on OLE' ELO has also been edited way down from its original glorious 8:02 on 1973's "II" album. Frankly, it sounds like it was edited with a chainsaw. Give me the original every time! "Showdown" is a Marvin Gaye influenced orchestral rock-soul number (?!?!?) that works like a charm. "Ma-Ma-Ma Belle" is an amazing collision of strings and molten metal. (Those two tracks are from 1973's ON THE THIRD DAY.) The classic "Boy Blue" is another revelation, taken from 1974's ELDORADO. Then there's the big Top 40 Hits, a sublime "Can't Get it Out of My Head," the haunting ballad "Strange Magic," and the funky driving "Evil Woman." After hearing OLE' ELO, I went out and completed my collection. If you don't have those early ELO albums, this album is a nice intro.

The music is in the Classic Jeff Lynne Style, one which, sadly, he maitained barely into the '80's.

I agree wholeheartedly with the original ALBUM Cover statement that "Ma Ma Ma Bell SHOULD have been the bands' breakthrough hit"...The opening riffs are pure gold rock & roll!

The haunting Viet Nam era tune "Kuiama" and "Roll Over Beethoven" were the surprise disapointments of the CD as they have been chopped up and shortened considerably from what was released on the original record album. This is the main reason the CD draws a 4 star rating from the original 5 star material.

If you're one of those collectors that seek only to grasp the best of a bands' best, you CAN NOT do without THIS CD of ELO hits..."Definitive" isn't the KEY word...It's the ONLY word to describe OLE'ELO!

The music's 5 star great, but the "remaster" is the original CD remaster, not part of the fantasic ELO remasters of the 2000's. If you're looking to replace an older CD for one with better sound, don't buy this. It won't sound any better than the one you already have.

"ole Elo" is a great cd with the hits made by Jeff Lynne and various elo personnel made from the "no answer" cd to the "face the music" which includes the time frame of 1972-1974. "ole elo" came out just after "face the music" and just before "new world record". It includes such hits as "ma-ma-belle", "roll over beethoven", "can't get it out of my head". It is a very good, if short history of early ELO. It's worth the price, if you like rock and classical elements combined together.

This release is crap. Nonsense. Junk. Garbage. Insert vulgar expletive here. Electric Light Orchestra's discography is packed full of worthless budget releases rehashing almost identical tracklists and at only nine tracks this one is worse than most of them, and even several of those are edited for length! At least they remembered 10538 Overture exists, at least, but you can do infinitely better than throwing away even a couple cents on this waste.

This album was originally released for the LP market in 1976. This CD re-release serves no purpose now that longer, more diverse and better compilations are available. About a half hour of the disc capacity is empty and the songs remaining are edited down from their original running time, most egregiously 'Roll Over Beethoven', whose extended jam is really the point of listening to ELO's version in the first place.

Electric Light Orchestra may have been the ultimate of the light, inoffensive pop bands of the seventies and early 80's according to their radio play legacy, but that's only when you divorce a few overplayed songs from their context. ELO and Jeff Lynne wrote several creative, consistent, musically interesting albums, expanding on the lush pop/rock formula of The Beatles and their stable of copycats and Apple Records proteges, and instead of wasting time on this... trash, any listener with taste would be better off picking up one of their actual albums like ELO 2 or Face the Music, or going for one of the few compilations with a wide and varied selection of work, such as Light Years or All Over the World: Very Best. Most of ELO's most eclectic and original songs never make collections, like 10538 Overture (No Answer), The Whale (Out of the Blue), and Fire On High (Face the Music). Don't buy these ridiculous budget compilations that do you a disservice by keeping you from hearing the real ELO.

This album is utterly unessential. The music is great but this release of the music is not. It has a tiny tracklist and several tracks are edited. Not worth any amount of money. Stay away.