Rockaria!

"Rockaria!" is a song by Electric Light Orchestra

This was the third track on the band's successful 1976 album A New World Record, and as the second single from the album, released in the UK in 1977. Featuring the operatic voice of Mary Thomas during the introduction, she flubbed the first take by starting the vocals too early. However, Jeff Lynne elected to use the take (complete with her interjection, "Oops!") anyway. During live performances, the 'aria' was provided by the band's bassist Kelly Groucutt, illustrating his wide-ranging vocal talents.

The song itself is a unique fusion of rocking blues, glam rock, opera, and power pop. The lyrics are about a "sweet little lady" who "sings like a songbird, and she sings the opera like you ain't never heard, but she ain't ready (no no no, she ain't ready) and she ain't gonna rock & roll." According to the lyrics, she is obsessed with the operatic masterworks of Wagner, Beethoven, Puccini and Verdi, and the singer's intent is to show her "how to rock and roll." By the end of the song, however, the twist becomes that the opera singer has proven that she actually can rock 'n' roll with the best of them — and that she has a few tricks to teach to the singer!

The title of the song is not used within the lyrics, thus it is often mispronounced, usually as rhyming with "momma mia". It is actually a fusion of two different words, rock and aria, thus giving "rock-ahr'-ia".

On some CD pressings of A New World Record, it appears without the exclamation point.

The lyrics:

Just got back from the downtown palais, Where the music was so sweet, It knocked me right back in the alley, I'm ready, yea, yea, yea, I'm ready, Wo, wo, wo, I'm ready, And I'm really gonna rock tonight., Chorus -- repeat, Far, far away the music is playing.,