Jeff Lynne’s Productions With the Beatles Rank With His Best
As the young auteur behind Electric Light Orchestra, Jeff Lynne hardly made his admiration for the Beatles a secret, with his distinctive take on Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound engineering, multitracked studio wizardry and soaring multipart vocal harmonies owing a clear debt to “Abbey Road” and “Magical Mystery Tour.”
So it made sense that Lynne would go on to become the defining producer for the group’s post-1960s diaspora.
Not only has he produced solo work for Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, Lynne was behind the boards for the Beatles’ final “new” hit records: “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love,” painstakingly recorded around existing Lennon demo tracks in honor of the Beatles’ massive “Anthology” releases in the 1990s. (The singles reached No. 6 and No. 11 on the Billboard singles chart, respectively.)
Lynne went on to produce McCartney’s “Flaming Pie” in 1997, netting Macca his highest album chart position (No. 2) since 1982. After producing a one-off remake of “I Call Your Name” with Starr in 1990, Lynne also produced three tracks intended for Ringo’s 1992 comeback album, “Time Takes Time.”
Yet Lynne’s most fruitful Fab Four collaborator proved to be his Traveling Wilburys bandmate Harrison. Teaming with the Quiet Beatle for 1987’s “Cloud Nine,” Lynne oversaw a complete renovation of Harrison’s sound, modernizing it with keyboards and prominent percussion, without ever losing track of its auteur’s signature sound. As Rolling Stone reviewer David Wild put it in his rave review of the record, “If somewhere along the line the Beatle George forgot how to shape a pop record, Lynne … obviously has not.”
By: Andrew Barker
Source: Variety
