“Top” Ten Music Losses of 2024: Richard Tandy (#10)

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As I said last year, it’s hard to call obituaries a “top” ten list. But it is a countdown, and that’s what we have to go with. To start off the “top” ten I give you another one of those band members whose name you don’t know but whose music you do know. #10: Richard Tandy I won’t keep you in suspense: he was the keyboardist for the Electric Light Orchestra. And ELO was a significant part of my late-teenage years soundtrack. Richard Tandy began with the band that preceded ELO, The Move. When they morphed into ELO, he came along, playing both keyboards and guitar. He was also a significant part of ELO’s sound in arranging (with front man Jeff Lynne) the strings (which were actually strings and not synthesizers). In 2017 ELO was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, LONG overdue in my estimation. I’m glad Tandy lived to see it. Richard Tandy Born March 26, 1948, Birmingham, Warwickshire Died May 1, 2024, Albany, New York (unknown cause) (age 76) HALL OF FAME: Rock and Roll (with ELO) Here’s ELO in the 70s — with all of those “honky Afros” — doing their hit “Do Ya”: