Telephone Line

Track two of A New World Record, released as a single in May 1977 by Jet and United Artists. It was the last single from the album until Surrender in 2006. The lyric has a man listening to his telephone ring and hoping a girl will answer. The band telephoned a number in the US that nobody would answer and listened, then recreated the ring on the Moog by tuning the oscillators to the same notes.

It reached number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 8 in the UK, and went to number one in Canada and New Zealand. Its 23 weeks on the Hot 100 were longer than any other ELO song managed, and Billboard ranked it the number 15 song of 1977. It was the band's first gold single and its biggest in the US. The American single, the only green ELO single, was shortened to 3:56.

Afterlife

AllMusic's Bruce Eder wrote that it might be the best Lennon-McCartney collaboration that never was. Stereogum's Ryan Reed ranked it ELO's best song, Ultimate Classic Rock's Michael Gallucci put it fourth and Classic Rock History's Brian Kachejian third. Lynne named it among his nine favorite ELO songs in 2022. In 2012 he played an acoustic version with Richard Tandy for Live from Bungalow Palace and re-recorded it for Mr. Blue Sky: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra.

It is the theme song of the 1977 film Joyride and is heard in Billy Madison.