The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are a British rock group from Birmingham, England, who released eleven studio albums between 1971 and 1986 and another album in 2001. ELO was formed to accommodate Roy Wood’s and Jeff Lynne’s desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones. After Wood’s departure following the band’s debut record, Lynne wrote and arranged all of the group’s original compositions and produced every album.
Despite early singles’ success in the United Kingdom, the band was initially more successful in the United States, billed as «The English guys with the big fiddles».They gained a cult following notwithstanding initial lukewarm reviews in their native UK. By the mid-1970s, they had become one of the biggest-selling acts in music. From 1972 to 1986, ELO accumulated 27 Top-40 hit singles in both the UK and the US, with 20 Top 20 UK singles and 15 Top-20 US singles. The band also holds the record for having the most Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 hits, 20, of any group in US chart history without ever having a number one single.
ELO collected 19 CRIA, 21 RIAA and 38 BPI awards, and sold over 50 million records worldwide during the group’s original 13-year period of active recording and touring.