Xanadu Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1980)

Note: this release was originally purchased as a LP, later replaced by a CD.

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree." When Coleridge wrote those lines in 1798, he had no idea that he'd be giving us the names of the 1980 movie Xanadu and Frankie Goes To Hollywood's 1984 album, Welcome To The Pleasuredome. We'll get to FGTH later, but today it's all about Xanadu.

Ah, Olympian muses, roller skating discos, Gene Kelly, a Don Bluth animation sequence, and LA's Pan-Pacific Auditorium (see pic below). Such is the magic of Xanadu, one of life's true cheesy pleasures. The movie, which is fun to revisit every few years, received a fantastic succinct movie review from Esquire magazine: a single sentence that read... "In a word, Xana-don't"!

While, admittedly, this roller disco movie was bad, the soundtrack brings back good memories for those of us that were ELO fans around that time. I'm not certain, but I'm fairly sure I had the soundtrack before I saw the movie at Bay Cinema 4. The LP had an ONJ side and an ELO side, but there are plenty of guest appearances as well. While I remember all the songs and sing along with all of them, some of them aren't very good. They probably weren't good 31 years ago either, but what did I know then? Now, looking at the album as a whole, there are about 5 decent songs out of 10.

Press of the time:

• Rolling Stone: "the last word in 'toy music,' the mechanized kiddie pop that Abba established as a worldwide Top Forty staple."
• RPM Weekly: "They haven't abandoned disco totally"
• Smash Hits (6 out of 10): "Very much soundtrack music."
• Rolling Stone: "the soundtrack of Xanadu is the last word in "toy music," the mechanized kiddie pop that Abba established as a worldwide Top Forty staple." [ed: the writer means to insult, but I see absolutely nothing wrong with worldwide Top Forty staples.]

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #4
• CashBox: #1
• Rolling Stone: #12

Tracks, in order of my preference:

1. Magic - ONJ: A great summer song. All of ONJ's songs were written by her longtime collaborator John Farrar. This is one of his better songs. The third biggest single of 1980.
2. Xanadu - ELO & ONJ: While the song is good, you have to listen to it in the context of the movie's finale. Gene Kelly on rollerskates!
3. I'm Alive - ELO: Solid ELO effort. The first song heard in the movie when the muses in the mural come alive. I'm told that included in the song's closing coda is Morse code which spells out ELO, but I don't know Morse code so I can't confirm that.
4. Suddenly - ONJ with Cliff Richard: Great ballad. I can sing both the melody and harmony parts if you need that sort of thing.
5. All Over The World - ELO: Classic ELO track with disco strings, bad backup vocals, and Jeff Lynne's falsetto.
6. Suspended in Time - ONJ: A fairly bland ballad along the lines of Hopelessly Devoted To You from Grease. This song brought the pacing of the movie to a screeching halt (as if that movie needed any help with that).
7. Whenever You're Away From Me - ONJ with Gene Kelly: Poor Gene Kelly. This was to be his last movie. A better dancer than singer, he doesn't do too bad a job here with bad material.
8. Dancin' - ONJ with The Tubes: We really don't need a big band song that segues then meshes with a rock song. In 1980, I was still a year or two away of knowing who The Tubes were.
9. The Fall - ELO: Typical ELO filler track. Not much here to like or hate.
10. Don't Walk Away - ELO: A horrible, plodding song made worse by the memory that this is the background music for the awful animation sequence in the movie.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I remember wanting this album badly and mowed somebody's lawn for $10 so I could go and buy it. I probably rode my bike straight from the job to the music store or K-Mart (the only two places in town to buy albums).

Around the time of its release, I won a KIOX radio trivia contest for naming 5 cities mentioned in the ELO single, All Over The World. I think I won a t-shirt that I never picked up.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Olivia Newton-John - Best of (2002)
Electric Light Orchestra - Discovery (1979)
Electric Light Orchestra - ELO's Greatest Hits (1979)