Jeff Lynne: Didn’t Want To Reinvent ELO Covers For New Album [VIDEO]

ELO leader Jeff Lynne says that his new covers collection was meant to pay tribute to his favorite songs -- not reinvent them. Coming on October 9th will be Long Wave -- Lynne's first new set since ELO's 2001 album, Zoom. Long Wave features such pop and rock standards as the Everly Brothers' "So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad)," Don Covay & The Goodtimers' "Mercy, Mercy," Roy Orbison's "Running Scared," Etta James' "At Last," the Four Aces' "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing," Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock," and Bobby Darin's "Beyond The Sea," among others.

Lynne told us that although he added his musical fingerprint to the songs , he was careful to remain true to the songwriters' intent: "I would never, ever change anybody's melody -- ever. I hate that when people change the tune and just go off on a little tangent for a while. We all know what the tune should be and it shouldn't be messed with -- I don't think -- when it's a great song. And I don't think the notes should be changed and that's why I stuck to doing them exactly as I knew them. And I wanted to do them with the respect that they deserved, because I think they're beautiful old tunes and the chords are fabulous in them. And the great thing is all the words are marvelous, too -- which is pretty rare in the world, where you get everything that's good about a song is great."