“Turn to Stone” by ELO

"Turn to Stone" throws open Out of the Blue, Electric Light Orchestra's 1977 double album, and it was the first single Jet Records pulled from it. Jeff Lynne wrote it in Switzerland during a two-week songwriting sprint for the record, produced it himself and played the Moog bassline that keeps the shuffle bouncing; he has called it one of his favourites.

Midway through, Lynne rattles off a stretch of words at top speed, a daft little detour of the kind he'd drop in so he wouldn't get bored, and the orchestral finale takes its cue from the Beatles' "A Day in the Life". It was the only one of the album's 4 singles to miss the UK top ten, but it climbed to number 13 in the US and number nine in Canada, and in 2008 BMI handed Lynne a Million-Air certificate for a million radio plays.

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