"Confusion" | ||||
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Single by Electric Light Orchestra | ||||
from the album Discovery | ||||
A-side | "Last Train to London" (UK) | |||
B-side | "Poker" (US) | |||
Released | 8 October 1979 (US) | |||
Recorded | 1979 | |||
Studio | Musicland Studios, Munich | |||
Genre | Pop rock | |||
Length | 3:42 | |||
Label | Jet | |||
Songwriter(s) | Jeff Lynne | |||
Producer(s) | Jeff Lynne | |||
Electric Light Orchestra singles chronology | ||||
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Discovery track listing | ||||
9 tracks
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Music video | ||||
"Confusion" on YouTube |
"Confusion" is the second song from the 1979 Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) album Discovery . It features 12-string acoustic guitar and vocoder.
It was released in the UK as a double A-side single with "Last Train to London". It peaked at number 8 in the UK Singles Chart,making it the fourth consecutive top 10 single to be taken from the Discovery album. [1] In the United States the song was released as a single with "Poker" on the B-side becoming a more modest hit,reaching number 37 on the Billboard Hot 100. [2]
Billboard rated "Confusion" as "a superbly crafted single," describing it as "a mid-tempo rock track that mixes a Beatlesque sound with a hint of disco." [3] Cash Box called it a "bubbly Lynne concoction,mixing glossy pop melody with alternately grandiose and circus-like keyboard fills" and praised the song's hook and craftsmanship." [4] Record World called it a "mellifluous,pop disc with the everpresent falsetto vocals &keyboard gymnastics." [5]
I'd just got hold of the very latest synthesizer, the Yamaha CS-80. The song is based entirely on the sound it made.
— Discovery remaster (2001), Jeff Lynne
Chart (1979–80) | Peak position |
---|---|
Austrian Ö3 Austria Top 40 [6] | 5 |
Canadian RPM Top Singles [7] | 20 |
German Media Control Singles Chart [8] | 6 |
Irish Singles Chart [9] | 9 |
New Zealand (RIANZ) [10] | 19 |
South African Singles Chart [11] | 10 |
UK Singles Chart [1] | 8 |
US Billboard Hot 100 [2] | 37 |
US Billboard Adult Contemporary [12] | 41 |
US Cash Box Top 100 Singles | 47 |
The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970 by songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of pop and classical arrangements with futuristic iconography. After Wood's departure in 1972, Lynne became the band's sole leader, arranging and producing every album while writing nearly all of their original material. From this point until their first break-up in 1986, Lynne, Bevan, and keyboardist Richard Tandy were the group's only consistent members.
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