Richard Tandy, who performed keyboards for Electrical Gentle Orchestra on all of its information since 1972 together with the Prime 10 hits “Evil Girl,” “Phone Line” and “Don’t Carry Me Down,” died Wednesday. He was 76.
His longtime bandmate, good friend and fellow Rock and Roll Corridor of Famer Jeff Lynne introduced the information however didn’t present particulars. “It’s with nice unhappiness that I share the information of the passing of my longtime collaborator and expensive good friend Richard Tandy,” he stated. “He was a exceptional musician and good friend and I’ll cherish the lifetime of recollections we had collectively. Sending all my like to Sheila and the Tandy household.”
Tandy performed on all the band’s albums beginning with 1973’s ELO 2, which featured a rollicking model of Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven” which grew to become ELO’s first U.S. charting single. It kicked off a run of 26 stateside hits and a seven Prime 10s: “Can’t Get It Out of My Head,” “Evil Girl,” “Phone Line,” “Shine a Little Love,” “Don’t Carry My Down,” “Xanadu” and “Maintain on Tight.” The band additionally scored 4 consecutive Prime 10 studio albums from 1975’s Face the Music by way of 1979’s Discovery.
The group featured prominently in Xanadu, the 1980 rock musical that was Olivia Newton-John’s follow-up to Grease. Additionally that includes The Tubes, he movie was a field workplace and demanding dud, however its soundtrack — that includes 5 ELO songs together with the title observe with Newton-John — reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200, spawned 5 Prime 20 singles and went double platinum.
Electrical Gentle Orchestra within the Seventies, clockwise from prime left: Melvyn Gayle, Bev Bevan, Jeff Lynne, Mik Kaminski, Colin Walker, Richard Tandy and Kelly Groucutt,
Alongside the best way, ELO combined classical components with Beatlesque pop rock to rack up 5 platinum and 7 gold albums that includes such traditional rock radio staples as “Livin’ Factor,” “Unusual Magic,” “Flip to Stone,” “Candy Talkin’ Girl” and “Mr. Blue Sky.” For all its pop success, the band had a tough time profitable over critics. However as time handed and fashionable rock matured, ELO would acquire extra respect from the press.
The group noticed even larger chart success in its native England, racking up 27 Prime 40 singles, 15 Prime 10s and 4 No. 1 albums. It was inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame in 2017.
Born on March 26, 1948, in Birmingham, Tandy first teamed with Lynne in The Transfer as its part-time bassist. He left the band to hitch The Uglys however quickly would reteam with Lynne, Transfer drummer Bev Bevan and others within the facet undertaking dubbed Electrical Gentle Orchestra. He would develop into considered one of ELO’s few mainstays by way of its early years, mainstream success and later iterations, together with the present Jeff Lynne’s ELO.
He performed “Evil Girl” and “Mr. Blue Sky” with that band and Ed Sheeran on the 57th Grammy Awards in 2015 and appeared on the ELO episode of VH1’s Storytellers 2001.
In 1985, he shaped The Richard Tandy Band with some ELO touring musicians and launched the album Earthrise.
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