While my original post was headed a different way, the ELO responses are most welcome. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about their use of strings, but I'd agree that IMHO Jeff Lynne is definitely a top tier Brian Wilson - Lennon/MacCa songwriting disciple.
One of my favorite "under the radar" singer-songwriters is named Parthenon Huxley (he mostly performs as P Hux). When Mik Kaminski and/or Bev Bevan reformed ELO as ELOII (later, after Jeff Lynne sued over the use of that name, they renamed themselves The Orchestra), they recruited P Hux to replace Lynne. If you want to hear a remarkable job of songwriting in someone else's style, try to hunt down the track "Jewel and Johnny" by The Orchestra.
When I first heard it, I would have sworn it was a Jeff Lynne-penned ELO top 10 hit. Were it released back in the day, I suspect that it would have been among their best known songs. I'd say it's worth checking out for Lynne fans.
Another interesting P Hux record is called Homemade Spaceship. It's entirely P Hux's acoustic covers of ELO songs. The songs are really transformed (tho, I'm sure, not to everyone's taste) by this treatment and that led to my earlier comment regarrding ambivalence about ELO's strings. Sometimes, I prefer the "unbowed" versions on Spaceship.
Marty
