Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds was a 1978 concept album by Jeff Wayne and others, retelling the story of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.

About the album

The War of the Worlds starred Richard Burton as the narrator-protagonist, Justin Hayward (of The Moody Blues), and David Essex. Burton was recorded separately from the other actors, so when his character interacts with the others he sounds a little detached.

"Forever Autumn ", "Thunder Child", and "The Spirit of Man " were some of the individual songs. "Forever Autumn" also became a separate radio hit for a time.

The repetition of "Ulla!", the sound of the Martians' Heat Rays throughout the musical and certain musical refrains pull the musical into a tight coherent whole.

The official album comes with several paintings by Peter Goodfellow , Geoff Taylor and Michael Trim that help to illustrate the story from beginning to end.

A special German version was also released in 1980 with Curd Jürgens taking the part of the journalist.

A sign of the album's influence and enduring popularity is that the 1998 computer game based on The War of the Worlds (the original book) not only featured music from the album and Martian war machines based on the illustrations throughout the album booklet, but was actually called Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds.

Track listing

All dialogue written by Doreen Wayne and Jerry Wayne , based upon H.G. Wells's original text. Music and lyrics by Jeff Wayne except as noted.

LP

Side A

1. "The Eve of the War" (9:06)
2. "Horsell Common and the Heat Ray" (11:36)

Side B

1. "The Artilleryman and the Fighting Machine" (10:36)
2. "Forever Autumn" (7:43) (Wayne/Vigrass/Osborne)
3. "Thunder Child" (6:10) (Wayne/Osborne)

Side C

1. "The Red Weed (Part 1)" (5:55)
2. "The Spirit of Man" (11:41) (Wayne/Osborne)
3. "The Red Weed (Part 2)" (6:51)

Side D

1. "Brave New World" (12:13) (Wayne/Osborne)
2. "Dead London" (8:37)
3. "Epilogue (Part 1)" (2:42)
4. "Epilogue (Part 2) (NASA)" (2:02)

Compact disc

Same as LP, reorganised as a double CD. The 1995 reissue adds four bonus remixes:

1. "The Spirit of Man (Dubulladub)" (4:15) (Wayne/Osborne)
2. "Dark Autumn Dub" (8:51) (Wayne/Vigrass/Osborne)
3. "Forever Autumn (Remix '95)" (4:21) (Wayne/Vigrass/Osborne)
4. "Epilogue (Part 2) / The Eve of the War (Remix '95)" (5:33)

People involved

• Richard Burton – spoken words ('The Journalist')
• David Essex – spoken words and vocals ('The Artilleryman')
• Phil Lynott – spoken words and vocals ('Parson Nathaniel')
• Julie Covington – vocals ('Beth')
• Justin Hayward – vocals (Forever Autumn)
• Chris Thompson – vocals (Thunder Child)
• Jerry Wayne – spoken words (Epilogue, Part 2)
• Jeff Wayne – keyboards
• Ken Freeman – keyboards
• Chris Spedding – guitar ('The Heat Ray')
• Jo Partridge – guitar
• George Fenton – santur, zither, tar
• Herbie Flowers – bass guitar
• Barry Morgan – drums
• Barry da Souza , Roy Jones , Ray Cooper – percussion
• Paul Vigrass , Gary Osborne , Billy Lawrie – backing vocals