Strange Magic

"Strange Magic" is a song written Jeff Lynne and performed by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). It was originally released on their 1975 Face the Music album. The 'weeping' guitar lick was provided by keyboardist Richard Tandy while Jeff Lynne played a 12-string acoustic guitar fed through a phase shifter. The song has been described as psychedelic. Versions The song has a complicated history with a number of different versions — most by ELO and one by Jeff Lynne alone — released both as a single and as a track on a number of different albums. After its initial appearance on Face the Music, it was released as a single in 1976 in two versions, one for the US and one for the UK, both different from the original. The US single was more edited than the UK single which appeared as it was originally in Face the Music, but without the orchestral intro. Also in 1976, "Strange Magic" was included as the final track in the United Artists Records promotional ELO album, Olé ELO.