ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA - DON’T BRING ME DOWN

Released: August 24, 1979

Charted:  UK: #3   US: #4 

“Don't Bring Me Down” is one of ELO's most memorable and popular songs. It was released as the third single of “Discovery” album. Upon its release in August 1979, the song reached the Number 3 spot on the UK Singles Chart, becoming their second-highest-charting hit in the UK. Hitting Number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, it is also their biggest hit in the US.

It was a rush release for the UK because, unlike North America and continental European countries which released “Don't Bring Me Down” as the second single off the “Discovery” album, the UK chose to release “The Diary Of Horace Wimp” instead. While “The Diary Of Horace Wimp” was turning out to be a moderate success in the UK, “Don't Bring Me Down”was a smash hit elsewhere. Thus the single was rush released in the UK and became their biggest smashing hit.

“Don’t Bring Me Down” demonstrates the band’s mastery of blending pop influences with a classic rock sound. Jeff has remained coy about from which song he selected the drum beat and it might be the case that he doesn't recall himself where it is from. Audio evidence shows and engineer Mack confirm that it was taken from “On The Run”, recorded earlier for the album, which was slowed down to match the beat.

At the beginning of the song, Jeff can be heard counting in the song (one, two-- one, two, three, four). This appears to be Jeff having a bit of a joke, because a count-in was not actually needed for the song. The song is not actually a live in studio performance by the full band, but rather a song that is fabricated from the looped drum beat and Jeff himself playing various instruments to make the backing track. The count-in was probably added after the backing track was recorded.

Jeff Lynne said: “This one I made up in the studio, and I play all the instruments. It starts with a drum loop from another song that I sped up. I then compressed the shit out of it. When I was singing it, there was gap in the vocals, so I just shouted out ‘groose’. It was a word that came to my head. The engineer said that it meant ‘greetings’ in German, which I thought was lovely and decided to leave in. When I went on stage with it everyone would sing ’Bruce’. I just ended up singing "Bruce" as well”. 

It is unclear why no strings were used. It is well documented that Jeff was getting tired of the requirement for having to use an orchestra on all his songs and the “Discovery” sessions were the first ELO sessions in which the band's string players were not used in the studio, and they were dismissed from the band shortly after the album's release. Lynne explains her side of the story: “This was the first song I did without any strings. It was exciting to work with them when we started, but after six albums, I got fed up with them. There was also trouble with the unions. They'd stop playing before the end of the song if the end of the hour was approaching. Now they aren't so rude since there are samplers and everything”. Jeff completed the backing track and concluded that the song simply didn't need strings, so he never added them to the song. Indeed, “Don't Bring Me Down” was such a big success for the band that Jeff likely decided at that time that the use of strings would be reduced on all future recordings. 

The song is thought to be dedicated to the NASA Skylab space station, which reentered the Earth's atmosphere in July 1979. It was also played to the astronauts on the Space Shuttle Columbia in July 1996, serving as their wake up call.