"It's Over" is a song recorded by the

Electric Light Orchestra The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970 by multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood and drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of pop and classical arrangement ...

(ELO). It is the second track from the LP '' Out of the Blue''. It was the last single to be lifted from the album and was released exclusively in the United States, becoming a minor hit. The orchestral beginning was actually the end of "

Mr. Blue Sky "Mr. Blue Sky" is a song by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), featured on the band's seventh studio album '' Out of the Blue'' (1977). Written and produced by frontman Jeff Lynne, the song forms the fourth and final track of the "Concerto fo ...

" reversed. In 2007,

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

artist and producer

will.i.am William James Adams Jr. (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced "will I am"), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. He is the frontman of the musical group Black Eyed Peas, which he ...

sampled Sample or samples may refer to: * Sample (graphics), an intersection of a color channel and a pixel * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of something * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample ...

parts of the song, and it formed the backbone of his opening track "Over" from the album ''

Songs About Girls ''Songs About Girls'' is the third studio album by American musician will.i.am, known from his work with Black Eyed Peas, The Black Eyed Peas. The original title of the album was ''Keep the Beeper''. The album was released on September 19, 2007. ...

''.

Reception

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' said that "It's Over" has a "classical feel" as a result of the shifting moods generated by the song. ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', is an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' said that it begins "with simple chording which opens to a strumming beat" and that the "

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

add panorama" and that "the vocals are characteristically crystalline and soaring." ''

Record World ''Record World'' magazine was one of three major weekly music industry trade magazines in the United States, with ''Billboard'' and '' Cashbox''. It was founded in 1946 as ''Music Vendor''. In 1964, it was changed to ''Record World'' under the ...

'' called it "a classic ELO single keyed by Jeff Lynne's unique vocals and production techniques."

Chart performance

"The Whale"

"The Whale" is an

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

by the

. The song is track 15 from their hugely successful 1977

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

LP ''Out of the Blue''. The song was the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

of "It's Over" in 1978 and was remastered and reissued on their

box set A boxed set or (its US name) box set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box, hence 'boxed', and offered for sale as a single unit. Music Artists ...

'' Flashback''. The song features the keyboard talents of

Richard Tandy Richard Tandy (26 March 1948 – 1 May 2024) was an English musician. He was the full-time keyboardist in the band Electric Light Orchestra ("ELO"). His palette of keyboards (including Minimoog, Clavinet, Mellotron, and piano) was an important ...

prominently, as well as the usual orchestration conducted by

Louis Clark Louis Clark (27 February 1947 – 13 February 2021) was an English music arranger and keyboard player. He trained at Leeds College of Music. He is best known for his work with Electric Light Orchestra and ''Hooked on Classics''. Clark started o ...

. Composer Jeff Lynne was moved to write the instrumental piece after watching a documentary on the killing of

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...

s, similar to

Jon Anderson Jon Anderson (born John Roy Anderson, 25 October 1944) is a British, and latterly American, singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the former lead singer of the progressive rock band Yes (band), Yes, which he formed in 1968 with bassis ...

(of

Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * Young Eisner Scholars, in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and Appalachia, US * Young Ep ...

fame)'s penning of " Don't Kill the Whale" in 1978. In the 1980s and early 1990s, a portion of the song was featured during the nightly sign-off on Toronto television station

CFTO-TV CFTO-DT (channel 9) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside Barrie-based CTV 2 flagship CKVR-DT, channel ...

References

1978 singles Electric Light Orchestra songs Song recordings produced by Jeff Lynne Songs written by Jeff Lynne 1977 songs Jet Records singles {{1970s-single-stub