Electric Light Orchestra - Telephone Line (2023 Remaster)

“Telephone Line“ is a song by English rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO).[3] It was released in May 1977 through Jet Records and United Artists Records as part of the album A New World Record. It was very successful, reaching the Top 10 in Australia, US, and UK, and number 1 in Canada. The ballad is track two on their 1976 album, A New World Record, and was the final single to be released from the album until September 2006, when “Surrender“ was released from the expanded reissue of the album. It became their biggest single success in the US and was their first UK gold award for a single. The lyrics are about a man waiting by his telephone waiting and hoping for a girl to call him and imagining what he’d say if she calls. With ELO’s continuing success in America it seemed obvious to frontman Jeff Lynne to use an American ring tone during the song. Lynne explained: “To get the sound on the beginning, you know, the American telephone sound, we phoned from England to America to a number that we know nobody would be at, to just listen to it for a while. On the Moog, we recreated the sound exactly by tuning the oscillators to the same notes as the ringing of the phone.“ The song charted in the Top Ten in both the UK and the US, peaking at number 8 in the UK[7] and number 7 in the US. The tune was on the Hot 100 for 23 weeks, nearly a full month longer on that chart than any other ELO tune. Billboard ranked it as the No. 15 song of 1977. In 1977, the song reached number 1 in New Zealand and Canada. “Telephone Line“ and Meri Wilson’s “Telephone Man“ were back-to-back on Hot 100’s top 40 for two non-consecutive weeks in the summer of 1977. As was the norm, many ELO singles were issued in different colours, but the US version of this single was the only green single ELO issued. The US single also was shortened to 3:56 with an early fade. It became the band’s first single to achieve Gold sales figures. Remastered from the original CD of A New World Record.