Jeff Lynne

Electric Light Orchestra were a British rock group from Birmingham who released eleven studio albums between 1971 and 1986 and another album in... 2001. ELO were formed to accommodate Roy Wood 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 were initially more successful in the United States, billed as "The English guys with the big fiddles". They soon gained a cult following despite lukewarm reviews back in their native United Kingdom. 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. The group also scored 20 Top 20 UK hit singles, as well as 19 Top-20 hit singles in the US . The band also holds the record for having the most Billboard Hot 100, Top 40 hits of any group in US chart history without ever having a number one single.
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The Traveling Wilburys were an English–American supergroup consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty,... accompanied by drummer Jim Keltner. The band recorded two albums in 1988 and 1990, though Roy Orbison died before the second was recorded. "Wilbury" was a slang term first used by Harrison during the recording of Cloud Nine with Jeff Lynne. Referring to recording errors created by some faulty equipment, Harrison jokingly remarked to Lynne, "We'll bury 'em in the mix". Thereafter, they used the term for any small error in performance and the term was used again when the group were together. Harrison suggested "The Trembling Wilburys" as the group's name; instead, Lynne suggested "Traveling", with which the group agreed. George Harrison first mentions The Traveling Wilburys during a radio interview with Bob Coburn on the Rockline radio station in February 1988. When asked what he planned to do as a follow-up for his Cloud Nine album, George replies: "What I'd really like to do next is to do an album with me and some of my mates... a few tunes, you know. Maybe The Traveling Wilburys...
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The Idle Race were a British rock group from Birmingham in the late 1960s and early 1970s who had a cult following but never enjoyed mass commercial... success. In addition to being the springboard for Jeff Lynne, the band holds a place of significance in British Midlands' pop-rock history as a link between The Move, the Electric Light Orchestra, Steve Gibbons Band and Mike Sheridan and The Nightriders. The core of the group, rhythm guitarist Dave Pritchard, bass guitarist Greg Masters and drummer Roger Spencer, was relatively unchanged from 1959 until February 1972. The band went through several incarnations, names, lead guitarists and lead singers: first Billy King and later, more successfully, with Mike Sheridan, with whom they first rose to prominence and, in 1964, to a record deal with EMI. While Mike Sheridan and The Nightriders failed to crack the charts, the band's lineup during this period included a young lead guitarist and composer named Roy Wood, whose first commercial song "Make Them Understand," appeared on one of the band's B-sides in 1965. Wood jumped ship to join the then Brum 'supergroup' The Move in December 1965. Sheridan left shortly thereafter.
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Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It was mostly inactive from 1976 to 1987. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records. Reprise was formed in 1960 by Frank Sinatra in order to allow more artistic freedom for his own... recordings. Hence, he garnered the nickname "The Chairman of the Board." Having left Capitol/EMI, and after trying to buy Norman Granz's Verve Records, the first album Sinatra released on Reprise was Ring-a-Ding-Ding! As CEO of Reprise, Sinatra recruited a host of his cronies for the fledgling label, such as fellow Rat Pack members Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. The original roster from 1961 to '63 included Bing Crosby, Jo Stafford, Rosemary Clooney, Esquivel and stand-up comedian Redd Foxx. The label still issues any Sinatra work recorded while on the label and, after his death in 1998, it had great success with his greatest hits collections. One of the label's founding principles under Sinatra's leadership was that each artist would have full creative freedom, and at some point complete ownership of their work; including publishing rights.
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Harvest Records was a progressive rock label of EMI, active from 1969 to 1984. Harvest Records was created by EMI in 1969 to promote progressive rock music and to compete with Philips' Vertigo and Decca's Deram labels, initially under the direction of Malcolm Jones and Norman Smith. Harvest was... distributed in North America by EMI's US arm, Capitol Records. With a launch release by The Edgar Broughton Band, it was home to such classic artists as Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, The Move, Electric Light Orchestra, Barclay James Harvest, Climax Blues Band, Syd Barrett, Kevin Ayers and Little River Band; Harvest also promoted more experimental styles of music. In addition, Harvest was the European licensee for the American label Blue Thumb Records from 1969 to 1971. Harvest Records' focus changed slightly as the 1970s drew to a close, beginning with the signing of post-punk groups Wire, The Saints and The Banned. New Wave artists Thomas Dolby and Duran Duran released their debut albums on the label in North America. Iron Maiden's first three albums were also released in the US by Harvest Records. Pink Floyd switched to Capitol after the release of The Final Cut in 1983.
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Epic Records is an American record label, owned and operated by Sony Music Entertainment.

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has... its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of other genres such as blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz, classical and other musical sources. Musically, rock has centered around the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with bass guitar and drums. Typically, rock is song-based music usually with a 4/4 time signature utilizing a verse-chorus form, but the genre has become extremely diverse and common musical characteristics are difficult to define. Like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. The dominance of rock by white, male musicians has been seen as one of the key factors shaping the themes explored in rock music. Rock places a higher degree of emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and an ideology of authenticity than pop music.
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