| "Fire on High" | ||||||||||
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| Single by Electric Light Orchestra | ||||||||||
| from the album Face the Music | ||||||||||
| A-side | Livin' Thing UK Sweet Talkin' Woman US |
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| Released | 1976, 1978 | |||||||||
| Format | 7" | |||||||||
| Recorded | 1975 | |||||||||
| Genre | Symphonic rock, progressive rock | |||||||||
| Length | 5:31 4:01 (US single version) |
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| Label | United Artists Records Jet Records |
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| Writer(s) | Jeff Lynne | |||||||||
| Producer | Jeff Lynne | |||||||||
| Electric Light Orchestra singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"Fire on High" is the opening instrumental track from the 1975 Electric Light Orchestra album Face the Music.
The song was the UK B-side to the band's worldwide hit single Livin' Thing, issued in blue vinyl. It was also later included — in an edited form minus the backwards vocals — as the flip side of the US hit single Sweet Talkin' Woman in 1978.
The album version contains an opening with a subliminal message. When the song is played backwards, the message, in a masked heavy voice (performed by ELO drummer, Bev Bevan), can be heard stating, "The music is reversible but time is not. Turn back. Turn back. Turn back. Turn back." — ostensibly Jeff Lynne's shot at backmasking hysteria, after satanic allegations were made against their song "Eldorado" by Fundamentalist Christianity members.[1] Snippets of "Messiah" by Handel can be heard during the album opening as well.
"Fire on High" was used as the opening theme for the CBS Sports Spectacular TV show in the Mid-1970s. A slightly edited version of "Fire on High" is used on a thrill ride called the Astrosphere at Funtown Splashtown USA in Saco, Maine. The ride is a scrambler inside of a vinyl dome held up by the air pressure inside, and as the ride goes there are lighting and laser effects and strange random pictures projected onto the walls of the bubble while "Fire on High" is played extremely loudly. A similar ride called GyroSphere, designed by Chris Elling and Brian Bram, located at Seabreeze Amusement Park in Rochester, New York also used "Fire on High" in the early 1980s. The song was used from the ride's inception until 1992 when it was replaced with Twilight Zone by 2 Unlimited. The ride has since been discontinued and torn down. At the site of the ride is a plaque which mentions the usage of the ELO song. In 2000, The New Jersey Devils used, along with video clips, the song "Fire on High" in an opening ceremony to all its games. Much of the song was also played prior to every Atlanta Thrashers home game.
Despite being almost entirely instrumental, the song's title can be faintly heard near the end of the track by the chanting chorus.
This song was also voted one of the best driving songs of all time by The Rock N Roll Revue.