Telephone Line Last Train To London Electric Light Orchestra

Telephone Line Album: A New World Record (1976)
Last Train To London Album: Discovery (1979)
by Electric Light Orchestra

"Telephone Line" was released in May 1977 through Jet Records and United Artists Records as part of the album A New World Record. It was commercially successful, topping the charts of Canada and New Zealand and entering the top 10 in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The ballad is track two on their 1976 album, A New World Record, and was the final single to be released from the album until September 2006, when "Surrender" was released from the expanded reissue of the album. It became their biggest single success in the US and was their first UK gold award for a single.

The lyrics are about a man listening to the ringing on his telephone waiting and hoping for a girl to answer his call and imagining what he would say if she answers.

With ELO's continuing success in America it seemed obvious to frontman Jeff Lynne to use an American ring tone during the song. Lynne explained:

To get the sound on the beginning, you know, the American telephone sound, we phoned from England to America to a number that we know nobody would be at, to just listen to it for a while. On the Moog, we recreated the sound exactly by tuning the oscillators to the same notes as the ringing of the phone.

The song charted in the Top Ten in both the UK and the US, peaking at number 8 in the UK and number 7 in the US. It was on the Hot 100 for 23 weeks, nearly a full month longer on that chart than any other ELO song. Billboard ranked it as the No. 15 song of 1977. In 1977, the song reached number 1 in New Zealand and Canada. "Telephone Line" and Meri Wilson's "Telephone Man" were back-to-back on Hot 100's top 40 for two non-consecutive weeks in the summer of 1977.

As was the norm, many ELO singles were issued in different colours, but the US version of the single of Telephone Line was the only green single ELO issued. The US single also was shortened to 3:56 with an early fade. It became the band's first single to achieve Gold sales figures.

"Telephone Line" is the theme song of the 1977 film Joyride starring Desi Arnaz Jr., Robert Carradine, Melanie Griffith, and Anne Lockhart, directed by Joseph Ruben.

Jeff Lynne re-recorded Telephone Line in his own home studio. It was released in a compilation album with other re-recorded ELO songs, under the ELO name.

In 2012, as part of the concert from his home studio, Live From Bungalow Palace, Lynne performed an acoustic version of Telephone Line with longtime ELO pianist Richard Tandy.

"Last Train to London" is the fifth track from their album Discovery recorded at Musicland Studios, Munich, West Germany

The song was released in 1979 in the UK as a double A-side single with "Confusion". It peaked at number 8 in the UK Singles Chart. However, in the US the two songs charted separately, with "Confusion" in late 1979 followed by "Last Train to London" in early 1980. It peaked at number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100.

"There was a certain period when it seemed we spent years on trains going back and forth from Birmingham to the various TV and radio stations in London."
— Discovery remaster (2001), Jeff Lynne

In 2002 British girl group Atomic Kitten sampled the hook of the song in their single "Be with You". The song was released as a double A-side with the song "The Last Goodbye". The single peaked at No. 2 in the UK.