One record at a time: 101. Electric Light Orchestra - The Very Best Of

We finally reach the end of my ELO vinyl with a double album "The Very Best Of". I seem to have purchased the vinyl of this album in 2018 and it is in really good condition.

This is a curious compilation released in the nineties by Telstar. The material here is from the Jet/Epic/CBS recordings of 1974 to 1986 which means "Showdown" and "10538 Overture" aren't included. "Roll Over Beethoven" is represented, but rather than the original single version we are furnished with a live recording of unknown origin. 

Whilst the early hits may not be present, this is one of few compilations to include tracks extracted from the Xanadu soundtrack. I presume licensing difficulties led to the title track being omitted but there are a number of cuts from the purely ELO side of the record.

Things kick off with "Mr Blue Sky" and the first side is front loaded with top ten hits from the bands commercial peak. Side 2 is a little more eclectic and draws on more recent material that didn't chart quite as highly.

There is a misprint on my copy of the sleeve which labels track 4 as "Out of My Head" - suggesting a whole new meaning to the song. This error is corrected on the label but a new faux pas is committed with the title "Civil Woman". The Discogs listing for this compilation shows corrected labels, so someone must have noticed the error for subsequent pressings, but the sleeve was never changed. These kind of issues wouldn't have mattered to the casual listener but they clearly represent a lack of attention to detail to a fan.

The second record continues to focus on songs derived from the latter half of the bands career and singles such as "Ma-Ma-Ma Belle" don't get a look in. Curiously, the sleeve indicates the parent album for most of the tracks but randomly omits the information for eight of them. 

This is a bit of a scatter gun approach to creating a compilation and it focuses too heavily on the bands eighties output for me. I don't know if Telstar tried to license material from EMI or MCA but somehow I doubt it. Everything about this compilation feels lazy. 2/5