Artist: ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA
Album: ELDORADO - A SYMPHONY OF ... REMASTERED (CD)

Year: 1974/ 2001
Media type: CD

Eldorado - A Symphony by the Electric Light Orchestra (known as simply Eldorado) is the fourth studio album by the Electric Light Orchestra, released in 1974.

ConceptEldorado is the first complete ELO concept album; vocalist Jeff Lynne conceived the storyline before he wrote any music. The plot follows a Walter Mitty-like character who journeys into fantasy worlds via dreams, in order to escape the disillusionment of his mundane reality.

RecordingEldorado marks the first album on which Jeff Lynne hired an orchestra; on previous albums, Lynne would overdub the strings. Louis Clark co-arranged and conducted the strings, and would go on to become a full member. The group's three resident string players continued to perform on recordings, however, and can be heard most prominently on the songs "Boy Blue" and "Laredo Tornado".

Mike de Albuquerque departed early on in the recording process, leaving Lynne to play bass and provide most of the backing vocals for the album (though de Albuquerque received credit.) Kelly Groucutt replaced de Albuquerque for the subsequent tour, when cellist Melvyn Gale also joined.

"Eldorado Finale" is heavily orchestrated much like "Eldorado Overture". Jeff Lynne said of the song, "I like the heavy chords and the slightly daft ending, where you hear the double bass players packing up their basses, because they wouldn't play another millisecond past the allotted moment."

All songs written and composed by Jeff Lynne.
The front cover, designed by Sharon Osbourne (then known as Sharon Arden), consists of a still taken from the well-known 1939 film The Wizard of Oz (then flipped horizontally).

TRACKLIST:
No. Title Length

1. "Eldorado Overture"   2:12
2. "Can't Get It Out of My Head"   4:21
3. "Boy Blue"   5:18
4. "Laredo Tornado"   5:29
5. "Poor Boy (The Greenwood)"   2:57

6. "Mister Kingdom"   5:50
7. "Nobody's Child"   3:40
8. "Illusions in G Major"   2:36
9. "Eldorado"   5:20
10. "Eldorado Finale"   1:20

ReissueThe album was remastered and reissued on 12 June 2001 with two bonus tracks, "Eldorado Instrumental Medley", a suite of the album's orchestral parts, plus "Dark City", an early draft of the track "Laredo Tornado".

11."Eldorado Instrumental Medley" – 7:56
12."Dark City" – 0:46

LINE-UP:

Jeff Lynne – vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, bass, keyboards, orchestra, producer and choral arrangements
Bev Bevan – drums, percussion
Richard Tandy – piano, moog synthesiser, guitar, backing vocals, orchestra and choral arrangements
Mike de Albuquerque – bass
Mik Kaminski – violin
Hugh McDowell – cello
Mike Edwards – cello
Louis Clark - orchestra and choral arrangements and conducting
Al Quaglieri - Reissue producer (2001)

Additional personnel:
Peter Forbes-Robertson – spoken word