Electric Light Orchestra, also known as ELO, were a rock music group from Birmingham, England that released twelve albums between 1971 and 2001. The band's direction and focus for most of its history was driven by Jeff Lynne.It was in the United States that the band were first warmly received, billed as The English guys with the big fiddles. They soon gained a cult following despite lukewarm reviews back in their native United Kingdom. They were managed by no-nonsense businessman Don Arden (the father of Sharon Osbourne).
By the mid seventies they had become one of the biggest selling rock music bands in the world. The group scored twenty top-20 UK hit singles, as well as fifteen top-20 appearances in the US Billboard charts. The band also holds the record for having the most Billboard Top 40 hits of any band in US history, without ever having a single. The band proved to be an excellent vehicle for confessed Beatles fan Lynne's semi-classical Beatlesque compositions, steering a fine line between an album-oriented rock outfit and a hit-making machine.
The group's name is an intended pun based not only on electric light (as in a light bulb as seen on early album covers) but also using "electric" rock instruments combined with a "light orchestra" (orchestras with only a few cellos and violins that were popular in Britain during the 1960s).
http://www.electriclightorchestra.com/bio.htm
