Secret Messages

Secret Messages is the eleventh studio album by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), released in 1983 through Jet Records. It was the last ELO album with bass guitarist Kelly Groucutt, conductor Louis Clark, and real stringed instruments, and the last ELO album to be released on Jet Records. It was also the final ELO studio album to become a worldwide top 40 hit upon release.

Original concept

The record was originally planned to be a double album, but was thwarted by Jet's distributor, CBS Records, claiming that producing a double vinyl album would be too expensive, and as a result, leader Jeff Lynne had to reduce it to a single album. This version of the album was digitally recorded and was to have been ELO's first compact disc. Six of the songs from the intended double album appeared as B-sides and reappeared on the Afterglow box set in 1990, including a string-laden eight-minute long tribute to the band's home town (Birmingham) entitled "Hello My Old Friend". Some of the tracks reappeared on the 2001 re-issue of the album. "Endless Lies", which had been altered for its inclusion on the subsequently-released Balance of Power album, appears in its original 1983 form on the 2001 remaster of this album.

Secret Messages (song)

"Secret Messages" is a song recorded by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) and is the title track (and opening track) of the 1983 album Secret Messages.

The song begins with strange effects and a backmasked voice (saying "welcome to the show") followed by a burst of morse code spelling out E.L.O., something Jeff Lynne did also 10 years earlier on "Ocean Breakup/King of the Universe" from On the Third Day. The song and album were recorded very much tongue in cheek with Jeff Lynne's love of hidden messages in songs.

The single peaked at 48 in the UK Singles Chart and at number 14 in the Irish Singles Chart.

Parts of the music video featuring a radio telescope were filmed at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, England.

Chart positions

References