Electric Light Orchestra's 1979 album, Discovery, led to a last-minute addition that would become one of the group's Top 10 hits on the charts and a staple with a comical story behind a misheard lyric.
"Don't Bring Me Down" became a smashing success for the group as their second highest-charting single in the UK, but also landed them at No.4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. At the time, the band decided to move away from their usual sound and go for a more disco vibe with their new album. Frontman Jeff Lynne was the one behind "Don't Bring Me Down," and once called it a "great big galloping ball of distortion."
During the creation of the album, Lynn was at a standstill as to where to head next with finishing "Don't Bring Me Down." Engineer Reinhold Max suggested that Lynn "just boogie out for the night" and do the track without strings, a first for the band.
Drummer Bev Bevan was also asked to develop a beat, but didn't want to take part int he jame session for "no reason," and they instead looped his drums on a tape. Lynne would compose the track's music on a piano with no string instruments also due to a developing issue.
"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," he said, according to Far Outmagazine.
After developing some lyrics about a girl who thought she was better than her boyfriend, the song came together. Lynn explained in the liner notes of the 2001 reissue of the album, “I wrote it at the last minute [because] I felt there weren’t enough loud ones on the album. This was just what I was after."
"Don't Bring Me Down" became a staple on the radio, but it also has one of the most misheard lyrics, which many fans interpret as the word "Bruce." In reality, Lynn added a cute count-in during its creation despite the track not needing one. He made up the word "groos" to fill the gap in the vocals, and was later told by the engineer that it means "greetings" in German. Lynn thought it was lovely and kept it, but during concerts, the fans misinterpreted it as "Bruce" and led the singer to sing the same misheard lyrics.
Alongside the misheard word, the track also includes the real-life sound of a door closing, which was a metal fire door at MusiclandStudio. "Don't Bring Me Down" also became the unofficial theme song for the NASA Skylab space station in 1979.
Related: 1972 Soft Rock Classic, A Major Radio Breakthrough, Became a Hit Summer Anthem
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