| "Don't Bring Me Down" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Electric Light Orchestra | ||||
| from the album Discovery | ||||
| B-side | "Dreaming Of 4000" | |||
| Released | July 1979 | |||
| Format | 7" | |||
| Recorded | Musicland Studios Munich, Germany (1979) |
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| Genre | Pop rock, disco | |||
| Length | 4:08 | |||
| Label | Jet Records | |||
| Writer(s) | Jeff Lynne | |||
| Producer | Jeff Lynne | |||
| Electric Light Orchestra singles chronology | ||||
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"Don't Bring Me Down" is a song by the band Electric Light Orchestra, and is the last track from their 1979 album Discovery. It is their highest charting hit in the US to date.
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"Don't Bring Me Down" is the band's second highest charting hit in the UK where it peaked at #3 and their biggest hit in the United States, peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also charted well in Canada (#2) and Australia (#6). This was the first song by ELO not to include a string section.
The drum track is in fact a tape loop, coming from "On the Run" looped and slowed down.
The song was dedicated to the NASA Skylab space station, which re-entered the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean and Western Australia on 11 July 1979.
On 4 November 2007, Jeff Lynne was awarded a BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc) Million-Air certificate for "Don't Bring Me Down" for the song having reached two million airplays.
The song was featured in the 2011 films Paul, Super 8, and the trailer for Our Idiot Brother and Jack & Jill. The song is also featured in the sky-diving scene in the Disney comedy College Road Trip. The song appears in the 2011 video game NHL 12.
A common mondegreen in the song is the perception that, following the title line, Jeff Lynne shouts "Bruce!" However, according to liner notes, he is actually saying a made-up word "Grroosss". This is similar to a German word for "greeting", Gruß, possibly referring to the Austrian and Bavarian greeting Grüß Gott that the group would have heard while recording the album in Munich. However, after the song's release, so many people had misinterpreted the word as "Bruce" that Jeff Lynne actually began to sing the word as "Bruce" for fun at live shows.[1]
A music video for the song was produced, which showed video of the band performing the song interspersed with various animations relating to the song's subject matter, including big-bottomed majorettes and a pulsating neon frankfurter.
| Chart (1979) | Peak Position |
Certifications (sales thresholds) |
|---|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 6 | |
| Austrian Ö3 Austria Top 40 | 2 | |
| Canadian RPM Top Singles | 2 | |
| Dutch Top 40 | 5 | |
| German Media Control Singles Chart | 5 | |
| Irish Singles Chart | 6 | |
| New Zealand Singles Chart | 6 | |
| South African Singles Chart | 9 | |
| UK Singles Chart[3] | 3 | |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 4 | RIAA: Gold |
| U.S. Cash Box Top 100 Singles | 4 | |
| U.S. Record World Singles | 3 |