- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds is one of the most ambitious concept albums of all time (and the best-selling British cast album).
The Greatest Music
Ever Recorded!
Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds (Various Artists) (1978): Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds is one of the most ambitious concept albums of all time (and the best-selling British concert/cast album ever). The album is structured as a rock opera that is mostly progressive rock tinged with disco, and also orchestral sections. Actor Richard Burton handles the narration; and the musicians, later dubbed the Black Smoke Band, include a virtual Who’s Who of the British rock scene of that era. Among others, they include Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, Chris Thompson of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy, top session guitarist Chris Spedding, bass guitarist Herbie Flowers (that’s him playing the prominent bass line on Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side”), David Essex (“Rock On”), and actress/vocalist Julie Covington; she and Essex had been appearing together in early performances of the rock musical Evita. The album tells the story pretty much as The War of the Worlds was written by H. G. Wells (much of Burton’s narration is word-for-word from the novel) decades before Steven Spielberg’s film basically did the same; I consider War of the Worlds to be one of Spielberg’s best movies and certainly his most disturbing. “Forever Autumn” was a #5 hit on the U.K. singles charts and #20 on the Billboard charts; other memorable tracks include “The Eve of the War”, “The Artilleryman and the Fighting Machine”, “Thunder Child”, “The Red Weed”, and “The Spirit of Man”. Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds is a hit album around the world, with an estimated 15 million copies sold, though not in North America surprisingly: The album peaked at #94 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, with sales of only 200,000, and at #76 in Canada. Besides this English version, the album has also been released with Spanish and German language narration; the songs and background music are not altered. Concert tours of The War of the Worlds finally began in 2006, including a 30th Anniversary Tour that started in 2009 and a 40th Anniversary Tour in 2018. In 2012, a new version of the album was released called Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds – The New Generation that features Herbie Flowers and Chris Spedding, who both performed on the 1978 album. A new production called Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds: The Musical Drama was started in late 2018.