Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds

ARTIST: Jeff Wayne

RELEASE: 1978

INTERVIEWEE: Jeff Wayne

Artists in and beyond the rock idiom have drawn on a vast array of topics for inspiration, but it's comparatively rare to use a classic novel as the basis for a rock concept album. Yet that's precisely what American expatriate Jeff Wayne did with his expansive 1978 double LP, Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.

Drawing upon H.G. Wells' 1898 novel about malevolent invaders from Mars, Wayne crafted a work that feels like a stage show (which, in due time, it would indeed be) yet delivers the intensity of rock. At the time of its release, the resulting work was unlike anything else in popular music. "I had no idea whether it would even get released," says Wayne today. "Much less turn into what it has become."