Complete Song List 1960s (112 songs) 1970s (716 songs) 1980s (307 songs) 1990s (185 songs) 2000s (248 songs) 2010s (418 songs) 2020s (36 songs) Top Of The Pops

Song Analyses Overview  * Can't Get It Out Of My Head  * Do Ya  * Don't Bring Me Down  * Evil Woman  * Ma-Ma-Ma Belle  * Mr. Blue Sky  * Roll Over Beethoven  * Showdown  * Sweet Talkin' Woman  * Telephone Line  * Xanadu  * You Got It

Tour Analyses Overview  * The Electric Light Orchestra  * ELO 2  * On The Third Day  * Eldorado  * Face The Music  * A New World Record  * Out Of The Blue / The Big Night  * Discovery/Xanadu  * Time  * Secret Messages  * Balance Of Power  * Alone In The Universe 2016  * Alone In The Universe 2017  * Live 2018  * Live 2019  * From Out Of Nowhere  * The Over And Out Tour

Single/LP Analyses ELO UK Singles ELO USA Singles non-ELO USA Singles ELO USA Reel-2-Reels ELO USA 8-tracks

Video/TV Analyses Overview TV Appearances (All) Beat-Club (Germany) The Midnight Special (USA) Mr. Blue Sky: The Story of Jeff Lynne & ELO Set Of 6 (UK) Supersonic (UK) Top Of The Pops (UK) Home Video Promotional Videos and Films

Miscellaneous Quadraphonic + Exposing Secrets Concert For George Advertisements Unofficial Remixes This is not Jeff Lynne Jeff's First Guitar Limericks!

Site Pages Main Page Site News Links Thanks About Me

Comments and Observations

Running from January 1, 1964 to July 30, 2006 and producing well over a thousand episodes, Top Of The Pops was a UK produced weekly musical television series that broadcast on the BBC (running on BBC1 for most of that time). It is also popularly known by its acronym, TOTP. The format was to air performances by the week's top pop charting artists each week. Each episode featured a BBC personality host to introduce the various musical acts as well as a presentation of that week's top charting songs.

The types of performances varied greatly, with some being fully live acts, while others were sung live to a backing track and others were completely mimed. Sometimes footage was even lifted from other musical programs produced outside the UK. And in later years, the use of music videos became more and more common. Jeff Lynne, as part of the Move and the Electric Light Orchestra made many appearances on the show, Several of these appearances were live performances. By 1976, however, all appearances of Jeff Lynne, under the Electric Light Orchestra or as a music producer (George Harrison, Roy Orbison, etc.) was by music video or playing of the disc only.

Unfortunately, many of the early performances, including the rare live performances, are lost. This is due to the BBC practice of destroying the recordings by "wiping" them. More on this practice by the BBC (and others) can be found HERE.

As a member of both The Move and Electric Light Orchestra, Jeff Lynne appeared on the program several times in the early 1970s. His previous band, Idle Race, never appeared on the show. Of these appearances, there is a mix of completely live performances, live vocals and some live instrumentation to a taped backing performances, and completely mimed performances. By late 1976, with ELO's Livin' Thing, only promo videos were used on the show and Jeff never made a personal appearance on the show after that. Various promo videos were shown for ELO's commercial peak and later years, the Jeff Lynne production era (George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty) and Jeff's final "appearance" via promo video was with The Beatles Real Love in November of 1996. In several instances, the promo videos were not actually used, but instead the record was played while the show's resident dance troupe, Legs & Co., danced to the song.

Because of the BBC wiping policy, there remains some uncertaintly about the types of performances on the early appearances on the show. The first appearance was in April of 1970, performing The Move's Brontosaurus. Unfortunately, this performance and all repeats have been wiped so little is known about it; it is thought to be completely live, but that remains unconfirmed. A completely live performance of The Move's When Alice Comes Back To The Farm in late 1970 is also wiped. A Move performance of Tonight in 1971 is also completely wiped, but it might be a rebroadcast of another German TV program'd mimed performance; but again this is unconfirmed. A performance of Chinatown is also completely wiped; it is assumed to be a completely live performance. A Move live vocal performance of California Man survives from a June 1972 repeat and a completely live performance of 10538 Overture by ELO survives in audio format only. An amusing mimed performance of Roll Over Beethoven also survives, which is a bit of a blessing in disguise; although it is a mime only performance, it features Jeff at his most wacky-- wearing a silver wig, a pink boa, and heavy blue eye shadow. Also surviving are mimed performances of Showdown and Nightrider and live a vocal performances of Evil Woman. A performance of Ma-Ma-Ma Belle (assumed to be mimed) is not available, although it's unclear if this performance was wiped or simply has not been re-broadcast since the 1970s.

Due to copyright issues, I cannot provide full versions of any of the videos on this site. However, I have provided YouTube and other links to online content for these performances (under the "Broadcasts" section). As this site and anyone associated with it do not maintain these videos, no guarantee of working, complete or accurate videos or links is made.

The source of information for the above details and the table of broadcast information below is taken from available bootleg material, the TV.com website, the BBC website, and recollections from fans. This detail is only as good as the sources and every effort was made to be accurate. There are likely a few errors, so any corrections are most welcome.

Broadcasts

The table shown here is all of Jeff Lynne's known appearances on the show, including the particular songs performed at each show. Although there is reasonable confidence that the broadcast dates, hosts and songs performed are accurate, because of limited resources, actual details about the performances (e.g. repeats, lip-synchs, etc.) are sometimes surmised from the known facts. Songs marked in RED are original, live performances on the show. Songs marked in BRIGHT BLUE are original, lip-synched performances on the show. All others are either promo videos, playing of the disc only or repeats of earlier performances.

Episode Number	Broadcast Date	Show Host	Song	Type	Comments
330	April 9, 1970	Jimmy Savile	Live unconfirmed	Brontosaurus The Move	This performance and all repeats of it have been wiped from the BBC archives, therefore there remains a lot of uncertainty about it. It is believed to be a fully, live performance. It is reported that this performance featured Roy in his starman/harlequin make-up, which he had debuted just a month earlier on the BBC's Disco 2 show.
333	April 30, 1970	Tony Blackburn	Repeat unconfirmed	Brontosaurus The Move	This is believed to be repeat of the original April 9, 1970 performance, although that remains unconfirmed. The episode has been wiped from the BBC archives.
335	May 14, 1970	Tony Blackburn	Repeat unconfirmed	Brontosaurus The Move	This is believed to be repeat of the original April 9, 1970 performance, although that remains unconfirmed. The episode has been wiped from the BBC archives.
359	November 12, 1970	Tony Blackburn	Live	When Alice Comes Back To The Farm The Move	This is a completely live, original performance for Top Of The Pops. The episode has been wiped from the BBC archives.
390	June 24, 1971	Tony Blackburn	Mimed unconfirmed	Tonight The Move	This performance and all repeats of it have been wiped from the BBC archives, therefore there remains a lot of uncertainty about it. Although unconfirmed, this is thought to be a rebroadcast of from Disco '71, a German music program originally broadcast on ZDF in 1971. This Disco '71 broadcast can be seen HERE.
392!@#	July 8, 1971	Tony Blackburn	Repeat unconfirmed	Tonight The Move	This is believed to be repeat of the original July 8, 1971 performance, although that remains unconfirmed. The episode has been wiped from the BBC archives.
396	October 14, 1971	Tony Blackburn	Mimed	Chinatown The Move	There is very little known about this performance as it and all repeats have been wiped from the BBC archives. It confirmed as a mimed performance.
399	November 4, 1971	Jimmy Savile	Repeat unconfirmed	Chinatown The Move	This is believed to be repeat of the original October 14, 1971 performance, although that remains unconfirmed. The episode has been wiped from the BBC archives.
400	November 11, 1971	Tony Blackburn & Jimmy Savile	Repeat unconfirmed	Chinatown The Move	This is believed to be repeat of the original October 14, 1971 performance, although that remains unconfirmed. The episode has been wiped from the BBC archives. It was celebrated as the 400th episode of the show.
425	May 4, 1972	Jimmy Savile	Live Vocal	California Man The Move	SEE IT ON . This is a live vocals (and probably some instrumentation) over a taped backing. What's interesting is that although the vocals (at least) are live, it's not an instrumental backing track, so that when Jeff and Roy sing, they are sometimes heard harmonizing with themselves as the tape volume is brought up on or down. The original May 4, 1972 show featuring the first airing of the performance is wiped from the BBC archives, but the repeated from the June 22 episode is still available and commonly available.
428	May 25, 1972	Ed Stewart	Repeat	California Man The Move	This is believed to be repeat of the original May 4, 1972 performance, although that remains unconfirmed. The episode has been wiped from the BBC archives.
430	June 8, 1972	Tony Blackburn	Repeat	California Man The Move	This is believed to be repeat of the original May 4, 1972 performance, although that remains unconfirmed. The episode has been wiped from the BBC archives.
432	June 22, 1972	Ed Stewart	Repeat	California Man The Move	SEE IT ON . This is a repeat of the original May 4, 1972 performance. The original episode's performance has been wiped from the BBC archives, although this episode featuring the performance has survived and is commonly available.
433	June 29, 1972	Jimmy Savile	Repeat	California Man The Move	This is believed to be repeat of the original May 4, 1972 performance, although that remains unconfirmed. The episode has been wiped from the BBC archives.
437	July 27, 1972	Tony Blackburn	Live	10538 Overture Electric Light Orchestra	This performance is the first appearance of ELO after Roy Wood left the band. In this performance, Jeff sings all lead vocals, including Roy's parts. Curiously, although the original broadcast video and all repeats of this performance were wiped from the BBC archives, an audio recording exists and was released on the First Light CD in 2001.
438	August 3, 1972	Jimmy Savile	Repeat unconfirmed	10538 Overture Electric Light Orchestra	This is believed to be repeat of the original July 27, 1972 performance, although that remains unconfirmed. The episode has been wiped from the BBC archives.
440	August 17, 1972	Jimmy Savile	Repeat unconfirmed	10538 Overture Electric Light Orchestra	This is believed to be repeat of the original July 27, 1972 performance, although that remains unconfirmed. The episode has been wiped from the BBC archives.
459	December 25, 1972	Jimmy Savile and Ed Stewart	Repeat	California Man The Move	This is believed to be repeat of the original May 4, 1972 performance, although that remains unconfirmed. The episode has been wiped from the BBC archives.
464	January 25, 1973	Jimmy Savile	Disc	Roll Over Beethoven Electric Light Orchestra	This is a disc only broadcast, playing over the show's closing credits, with the audience dancing to the song.
465	February 1, 1973	Noel Edmonds	Mimed	Roll Over Beethoven Electric Light Orchestra	SEE IT ON . Although this performance was a mimed only performance, it's one of the most memorable because of Jeff's appearance. Apparently Jeff was continuing to experiment with Roy Wood's outrageous stage appearance, as he wore heavy blue eye shadow, a pink boa, multi-colored striped pants, and a silver wig during the performance. It was quite outrageous. The original broadcast video of the performance in color was wiped from the BBC archives, but a black and white print that was prepared for foreign markets survives. Color images of Jeff in the outfit only survive in still pictures.
467	February 15, 1973	Jimmy Savile	Repeat	Roll Over Beethoven Electric Light Orchestra	This is a repeat of the original February 15, 1973 performance.
501	October 11, 1973	Kenny Everett	Mimed	Showdown Electric Light Orchestra	SEE IT ON . This is a mimed performance with ELO sound man, Rick Pannell, again miming cello due to Colin Walker recently leaving the band.
504	November 1, 1973	Noel Edmonds	Repeat unconfirmed	Showdown Electric Light Orchestra	This is a repeat of the original October 11, 1973 performance.
524	March 14, 1974	Noel Edmonds	Mimed unconfirmed	Ma-Ma-Ma Belle Electric Light Orchestra	Apparently this has been wiped from the BBC archives. This is assumed to be a live appearance for a mimed performance.
525	March 21, 1974	Tony Blackburn	Repeat	Ma-Ma-Ma Belle Electric Light Orchestra	This is a repeat of the original March 14, 1974 performance.
614	January 8, 1976	Noel Edmonds	Live Vocal	Evil Woman Electric Light Orchestra	SEE IT ON . This performance features live lead vocals by Jeff and live unidentified female backing vocals over a taped backing. The tape backing, and thus the performance, are edited, cutting the second chorus and the entire piano part from the instrumental bridge that follows as well as fading early.
616	January 22, 1976	David Hamilton	Repeat unconfirmed	Evil Woman Electric Light Orchestra	This is a repeat of the original January 8, 1976 performance.
?	January 31, 1976	Unknown	Repeat unconfirmed	Evil Woman Electric Light Orchestra	This is a repeat of the original January 8, 1976 performance.
619	February 12, 1976	Noel Edmonds	Repeat unconfirmed	Evil Woman Electric Light Orchestra	This is a repeat of the original January 8, 1976 performance.
630	April 29, 1976	Tony Blackburn	Mimed	Nightrider Electric Light Orchestra	SEE IT ON . This is a mimed performance to the basic single version of the song.
659	November 18, 1976	David Jensen	Promo Video	Livin' Thing Electric Light Orchestra
661	December 2, 1976	Ed Steward	Promo Video	Livin' Thing Electric Light Orchestra
674	February 24, 1977	Noel Edmonds	Promo Video	Rockaria! Electric Light Orchestra	There are two slightly different Rockaria! promo videos; the version broadcast features the start with the opera singer on the window balcony above the stage.
676	March 10, 1977	David Jensen	Promo Video	Rockaria! Electric Light Orchestra	There are two slightly different Rockaria! promo videos. The version broadcast is an edit of the version that features the start with the opera singer on the window balcony above the stage. The edit removes the middle portion jumping from the opera singer's second start in the song to the third part instead.
687	May 26, 1977	Dave Lee Travis	Promo Video	Telephone Line Electric Light Orchestra
689	June 9, 1977	Tony Blackburn	Promo Video	Telephone Line Electric Light Orchestra
710	November 3, 1977	Jimmy Savile	Promo Video	Turn To Stone Electric Light Orchestra
712	November 17, 1977	Jimmy Savile	Disc	Turn To Stone Electric Light Orchestra	Dance troupe Legs & Co. danced over the playing of this song.
725	February 9, 1978	Peter Powell	Promo Video	Mr. Blue Sky Electric Light Orchestra
727	February 23, 1978	Dave Lee Travis	Promo Video	Mr. Blue Sky Electric Light Orchestra
????	July 6, 1978	Peter Powell	Promo Video	Wild West Hero Electric Light Orchestra	There were two different Wild West Hero music videos produced. The video shown is apparently the cartoon version and not the "cowboy on stage" version. The beginning and end of the video is clipped by presenter Peter Powell in the studio.
?	July 29, 1978	David Jensen	Promo Video	Wild West Hero Electric Light Orchestra	There were two different Wild West Hero music videos produced. The video shown is apparently the cartoon version and not the "cowboy on stage" version.
?	October 5, 1978	David Jensen	Disc	Sweet Talkin' Woman Electric Light Orchestra	The song wasy played during the closing credits only.
?	October 12, 1978	Jimmy Savile	Promo Video	Sweet Talkin' Woman Electric Light Orchestra
?	October 26, 1978	Tony Blackburn	Disc	Sweet Talkin' Woman Electric Light Orchestra	Dance troupe Legs & Co. danced over the playing of this song.
?	May 24, 1979	David Jensen	Promo Video	Shine A Little Love Electric Light Orchestra	There were two different Shine A Little Love music videos produced. The video shown is apparently the Discovery videos version (performed on stage) and not the recording studio version.
?	June 7, 1979	Jimmy Savile	Promo Video	Shine A Little Love Electric Light Orchestra	There were two different Shine A Little Love music videos produced. The video shown is apparently the Discovery videos version (performed on stage) and not the recording studio version.
800	July 26, 1979	Jimmy Savile	Promo Video	The Diary Of Horace Wimp Electric Light Orchestra	This episode was celebrated as the 800th episode of the show.
?	August 9, 1979	Dave Lee Travis	Promo Video	The Diary Of Horace Wimp Electric Light Orchestra
?	September 6, 1979	Peter Powell	Promo Video	Don't Bring Me Down Electric Light Orchestra
?	September 20, 1979	Mike Read	Disc	Don't Bring Me Down Electric Light Orchestra	Dance troupe Legs & Co. danced over the playing of this song.
?	November 22, 1979	Dave Lee Travis	Promo Video	Confusion Electric Light Orchestra
?	August 7, 1980	Peter Powell, Elton John	Promo Video	Xanadu Olivia Newton-John & Electric Light Orchestra	This features clips from the Xanadu film only.
?	August 14, 1980	Roger Daltry, Tommy Vance	Disc	All Over The World Electric Light Orchestra	Dance troupe Legs & Co. danced over the playing of this song.
?	November 27, 1980	Tommy Vance	Disc	Don't Walk Away Electric Light Orchestra	Dance troupe Legs & Co. danced over the playing of this song. The song was preceded by a short, live interview with Bev Bevan, promoting his new book, The ELO Story.
?	August 13, 1981	Simon Bates	Promo Video	Hold On Tight Electric Light Orchestra
?	August 27, 1981	Richard Skinner	Disc	Hold On Tight Electric Light Orchestra	Dance troupe Legs & Co. danced over the playing of this song.
?	November 5, 1981	Peter Powell	Promo Video	Twilight Electric Light Orchestra
?	January 21, 1982	David Jensen	Promo Video	Ticket To The Moon Electric Light Orchestra
?	June 23, 1983	Simon Bates, Peter Powell	Promo Video	Rock 'N' Roll Is King Electric Light Orchestra
?	July 7, 1983	David Jensen, John Peel	Promo Video	Rock 'N' Roll Is King Electric Light Orchestra
?	October 29, 1987	Gary Davies, Steve Wright	Promo Video	Got My Mind Set On You George Harrison	There were two different Got My Mind Set On You music videos produced. The video shown is apparently the "George-playing-guitar-in-a-room" version and not the "picture box" version.
?	November 5, 1987	Janice Long, Mike Smith	Promo Video	Got My Mind Set On You George Harrison	There were two different Got My Mind Set On You music videos produced. The video shown is apparently the "George-playing-guitar-in-a-room" version and not the "picture box" version.
?	November 26, 1987	Simon Bates, Gary Davies	Promo Video	Got My Mind Set On You George Harrison	There were two different Got My Mind Set On You music videos produced. The video shown is apparently the "George-playing-guitar-in-a-room" version and not the "picture box" version.
?	February 25, 1988	Mark Goodier, Peter Powell	Promo Video	When We Was Fab George Harrison
?	December 31, 1988	David Jacobs, Pete Murray, Alan Freeman, Kenny Everett, David Jensen, Simon Bates, Mark Goodier, Peter Powell, Tony Blackburn, Mike Read, Paul Gambaccini, Jimmy Savile, David Hamilton	Promo Video	Mr. Blue Sky Electric Light Orchestra	This was a special episode celebrating the show's 25th anniversary with Radio 1 DJs doing the presentations. It is unclear which DJ introduced ELO's part.
?	January 12, 1989	Simon Mayo, Sybil Ruscoe	Promo Video	You Got It Roy Orbison
?	January 19, 1989	Bruno Brookes, Richard Skinner	Promo Video	You Got It Roy Orbison
?	February 2, 1989	Simon Mayo, Steve Wright	Promo Video	You Got It Roy Orbison
?	June 15, 1989	Mark Goodier, Simon Parkin	Promo Video	I Won't Back Down Tom Petty
?	November 23, 1995	Nicky Campbell	Promo Video	Free As A Bird The Beatles
?	November 30, 1995	Jack Dee	Promo Video	Free As A Bird The Beatles
?	December 14, 1995	John Peel	Promo Video	Free As A Bird The Beatles
?	March 14, 1996	MN8	Promo Video	Real Love The Beatles
?	January 14, 2005	Reggie Yates	Promo Video	Shine A Little Love Electric Light Orchestra	There were two different Shine A Little Love music videos produced. The video shown is apparently the Discovery videos version (performed on stage) and not the recording studio version. The video was aired just after the Lovefreekz cover version was aired.