Rockaria!
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| “Rockaria!” | |||||
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| Single by Electric Light Orchestra from the album A New World Record |
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| B-side | "Poker" | ||||
| Released | February 1977 | ||||
| Format | 7" | ||||
| Recorded | 1976 Musicland Studios, Munich | ||||
| Genre | Rock and Roll, Rock Opera | ||||
| Length | 3:10 | ||||
| Label | Jet Records | ||||
| Producer | Jeff Lynne | ||||
| Electric Light Orchestra singles chronology | |||||
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| A New World Record track listing | |||||
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"Rockaria!" is a song by Electric Light Orchestra
This was the third track on the band's successful 1976 album A New World Record, and as the second single from the album, released in the UK in 1977. Featuring Mary Thomas on Operatic voice on the introduction, she fluffed the first take, starting too early, but they used it anyway (complete with, "Oops!"). Live, the 'aria' was provided by the vocal talents of the band's bassist Kelly Groucutt.
The song itself is a unique fusion of rocking blues, glam rock, opera, and power pop. The lyrics are about a "sweet little lady" who "sings like a songbird, and she sings the opera like you ain't never heard, but she ain't ready (no no no, she ain't ready) and she ain't gonna rock & roll." According to the lyrics, she is obsessed with the operatic masterworks of Wagner, Beethoven, Puccini and Verdi, and the singer's intent is to show her "how to rock and roll." By the end of the song, the lady has proved that actually she can rock'n'roll with the best of them, and has a few tricks to teach the singer!
The title of the song is not said in the lyrics, thus it is often mispronounced, usually as rhyming with "momma mia". It is actually a fusion of two different words, rock and aria, thus giving "rock-ahr'-ia".
On some CD pressings of A New World Record, it appears without the exclamation point.
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