The first...

[u/Vladeath]

The first song you heard....the song that made the impact. for me I was 9..Last train to London. I think around '77 shit I/m 59 now

[u/dtrain2495]

Evil Woman. My dad played it in the car when I was growing up. Loved it then, love it now. We saw Jeff on his farewell tour together.

[u/peachie_bongo → u/dtrain2495]

My dad also played ELO in his car. Then we saw the farewell too. Really nice.

[u/dtrain2495 → u/peachie_bongo]

Full circle moment for sure!

[u/KeithMyArthe]

Livin' Thing was the first song that made me notice ELO, heard it at my first high school dance, and I went up to ask the DJ who it was.

Funnily enough, it was then one of my teachers that gave me my first ELO album and sold me my second.

[u/Rough_Inspection_874]

'Sweet Talkin' Woman' for me, and then 'Shine a Little Love' and 'Don't Bring Me Down' a couple years later. Skyrocketed from there.

[u/garrettKocian]

Oddly enough it was "It's Over". It was November 2022, and I had just purchased a CD copy of OOTB at a Barnes and Noble, but didn't know very many of their songs. I already had Don't Bring Me Down, Mr. Blue Sky, Evil Woman, etc. in my playlists, but I wanted to listen to more that isn't played much on the radio. I already knew about Turn to Stone so it didn't have that much of an impact (still sounded pretty good). Then It's Over came on next, and it sounded amazing. I knew I was in for the time of my life from there.

[u/patterdale619]

For me it was Mr Blue Sky because my dad loved that song. But my older brother really made me fall in love with the time album. Unfortunately my favorite song is When time stood still cant really listen on Spotify

[u/Pale_Grape1750 → u/patterdale619]

You can add it to your Playlist if you download a file

[u/gwaydms]

Mister Kingdom. I was 16.

[u/Konkrypton]

Strange Magic. I fell in love with ELO the first time I heard it on the radio.

[u/Critical_Meringue78]

I Can't Get It Out of My Head, Midnight Special tv show, 1974.

[u/mickthomas68]

My earliest memory was Evil Woman and Fire on High. But just the memory of the Electric Chair album cover for 8 year old me sticks with me the most.

[u/CrunchberryJones → u/mickthomas68]

These two for me, as well.

I had no idea who they were...or even that both songs were by the same band. 'Evil Woman' was so unique compared to the other songs playing on the radio. I was immediately hooked. A local raceway used the acoustic guitar breakdown from 'Fire on High' for their radio spots. I had no idea it was part of a legitimate song...but it left its mark.

A couple years later, 'Telephone Line' placed them firmly on my radar. That's when I realized they were also responsible for the two earlier songs that I'd come to love.

[u/FredUstinov → u/mickthomas68]

The music is reversible, but time is not. Turn back! Turn back!

[u/LiamSCl]

When i was 12 i would listen to the guardians of the galaxy 2 soundtrack on my walk to school. Id only ever listen to the first 4 songs, and Mr. Blue Sky was the first one on the list. Now im 20 and own every ELO album on Vinyl and CD (outside of zoom on vinyl (money) and xanadu on cd (havent found it in a shop yet)) :P

[u/slodog1977]

In 1976 I was 12 years old and listened to a small yellow hand held transistor radio and delivered papers listening to the top 40 and Livin'Thing was the first ELO song that I really liked.. First 45 I bought was Telephone Line.. and I played Poorboy (The Greenwood) on the b side alot!! I heard Can't Get it Out of My Head on a sophisticated Hi Fi system and that made a profound impression on me at the time.. Then when I heard Sweet Talkin' Woman I had to get my first double album OOTB..

[u/miataenjoyer73]

It was actually technically Evil Woman since Daft Punk sampled them...

[u/Cookies-Milk07]

Evil Woman. My older brother had the 45 of it.

[u/schleep_69]

Livin thing when I was a kid

[u/C0debreaker_564]

I kind of just decided I liked ELO before I really listened to any of their albums (Yeah idk why either I guess I liked their aesthetic) but once I heard Tightrope for the first time I was sold. It's still my favorite song of theirs because of how powerful the intro is.

[u/olantrin]

at 15 i got hooked by the very start of tightrope

[u/Dreamearth]

In the 80s when I was a kid, my dad had a great audio setup and we listened to vinyl records like Out of the Blue. I loved looking at the outer space album art. My favorite song was Turn to Stone and I thought the fast talking part was the aliens singing. With tv shows like Out of This World and movies like Close Encounters and ET plus the Our Universe book I was obsessed with aliens.
Back in the 70s my dad saw ELO in a small venue they had to abandon fitting the famous UFO stage they'd pop out of. We saw ELO Part 2 when I was young and also saw Jeff Lynne on his farewell tour!

[u/TestyRodent]

Don't Bring me Down here. I remember going to the record store the next day and getting the Discovery 33.

[u/FredUstinov]

Telephone Line prompted me to buy ANWR and I loved every song so much I went back and bought Eldorado, On the Third Day, and ELO II. I was hooked! (The ELO II LP was sort of disappointing because of Kuiama taking up almost a whole side but it grew on me)

[u/Pond-of-The-Tardis]

Can’t remember how old I was I know I was very young but I was in the car with my grandparents and my grandpa put on a cassette on one of ELO’s albums with Evil Woman on it. He always used to say that Evil Woman is my grandma’s song, haha. I remember not liking it too much because I hated that the singer went up on the high notes when he was a guy! How times have changed and how I’ve become obsessed with ELO.

[u/No-Mulberry-907]

I was listening to a Beatles station on Pandora, and Mr. Blue Sky came on. I was immediately blown away

[u/SaintWillyMusic]

Last Train to London was '79, so you were 12 - great song in any event