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ELO biography

In 1979, the multi-platinum album Discovery (or "Disco? Very!", as fans refer to it), was released. Although the biggest hit on the album (and ELO's biggest hit overall) was the hard-rock song "Don't Bring Me Down", the album was noted for its heavy disco influence. Discovery also produced the hits "Shine a Little Love", "Last Train to London", "Confusion" and "The Diary of Horace Wimp".

Although there would be no live tour associated with Discovery, the band recorded the entire album in video form. The Discovery music videos would be the last time the "classic" late 1970s lineup would be seen together, as the violinist, Mik Kaminski, and the two cellists, Hugh McDowell and Melvyn Gale, were shortly dismissed.

The Electric Light Orchestra finished 1979 as the biggest selling act in the United Kingdom. ELO had reached the peak of their stardom, selling millions of albums and singles and even inspiring a parody/tribute song on the Randy Newman album Born Again.

In 1980, Jeff Lynne was asked to write for the soundtrack of the musical film Xanadu, with the other half written by John Farrar and performed by the film's star Olivia Newton-John. The movie performed poorly at the box office, but the soundtrack did exceptionally well, eventually going double platinum. The album spawned hit singles from both Newton-John ("Magic," #1 in the United States, and "Suddenly" with Cliff Richard) and ELO ("I'm Alive", which went gold, "All Over the World" and "Don't Walk Away"). The title track, performed by both Newton-John and ELO, is ELO's only song to top the singles chart in the United Kingdom. Xanadu was turned into a surprising hit Broadway Musical that opened on 10 July 2007 at the Helen Hayes Theatre to uniformly good reviews and received 2 Tony Award nominations. The Electric Light Orchestra Story, Bev Bevan's memoirs from his early days and throughout his career with The Move and ELO, was also published in 1980.

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