| "Mr. Blue Sky" | ||||||||
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| Single by Electric Light Orchestra | ||||||||
| from the album Out of the Blue | ||||||||
| B-side | "One Summer Dream" | |||||||
| Released | January 1978 | |||||||
| Format | 7" | |||||||
| Recorded | 1977 Musicland Studios, Munich | |||||||
| Genre | Progressive rock | |||||||
| Length | 5:06 3:45 (Japanese 7") |
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| Label | Jet | |||||||
| Writer(s) | Jeff Lynne | |||||||
| Producer | Jeff Lynne | |||||||
| Electric Light Orchestra singles chronology | ||||||||
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"Mr. Blue Sky" is a song by English rock group Electric Light Orchestra, featured on the band's seventh studio album Out of the Blue (1977). Written and produced by frontman Jeff Lynne, the song forms the fourth and final track of the "Concerto for a Rainy Day" suite, on side three of the original double LP. "Mr. Blue Sky" was the second Billboard Hot 100 top-40 single to be taken from Out of the Blue, peaking at number 35 in the United States. The single also reached number six on the UK Singles Chart. The song was played as a wake-up call to astronaut Christopher Ferguson on Day 3 of STS-135, the final mission of Space Shuttle Atlantis.
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In a BBC Radio interview, Lynne talked about writing "Mr. Blue Sky" after locking himself away in a Swiss chalet and attempting to write ELO's follow-up to A New World Record:
| “ | It was dark and misty for 2 weeks, and I didn't come up with a thing. Suddenly the sun shone and it was, 'Wow, look at those beautiful Alps.' I wrote Mr. Blue Sky and 13 other songs in the next 2 weeks. | ” |
The song's arrangement has been called "Beatlesque",[1] bearing similarities to Beatles songs "Martha My Dear and "A Day in the Life".[2][3]
The song features a heavily vocoded voice singing the phrase "Mr. Blue Sky", (from 2:23 to 2:39, or from 2:20 to 2:34 on the 30th anniversary CD). Although a second vocoded segment at the end of the song (4:50-4:55) was often also interpreted as "Mister Blue Sky-yi", it is actually "Please turn me over" as it is the end of side three, and the listener is being instructed to flip the LP over. This was confirmed by original keyboardist Richard Tandy, who did confirm the actual lyric to members of the Showdown ELO fan list.
| Chart (1978) | Peak Position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 87 |
| Dutch Top 40 | 11 |
| German Media Control Singles Chart | 27 |
| UK Singles Chart[4] | 6 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 35 |
| U.S. Cash Box Top 100 Singles | 27 |
| U.S. Record World Singles | 33 |