“Xanadu” by Electric Light Orchestra with Olivia Newton John

Jeff Lynne wrote "Xanadu" as the title song for the 1980 film musical that shares its name, and while Olivia Newton-John takes the lead vocal, Electric Light Orchestra builds the palace around her. Lynne produced it and played guitars and synthesizer, Richard Tandy piled on keyboards, piano and more synth, Kelly Groucutt played bass and joined Lynne on backing vocals, Bev Bevan pounded drums, percussion and timpani, and Louis Clark brought in the strings, with Mack engineering. It's disco dressed in ELO's Sunday best, and it was Lynne's own favourite among his songs.

Released that June on Jet, it went to number one in several European countries and gave ELO their only UK chart-topper, two weeks at the top in July 1980, while in America it reached number eight on the Hot 100.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.