Wild Tiger Woman

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"Wild Tiger Woman"
Wild Tiger Woman.jpg
Single by the Move
B-side "Omnibus"
Released30 August 1968
Recorded21 March 1968
Studio Olympic, London, UK
Genre Hard rock
Length2:55
Label Regal Zonophone
Songwriter(s) Roy Wood
Producer(s) Denny Cordell
The Move singles chronology
"Fire Brigade"
(1968)		"Wild Tiger Woman"
(1968)		"Blackberry Way"
(1968)

"Wild Tiger Woman" is a song recorded by the Move, produced by Denny Cordell and, as with all the other A-sides of their singles, written by Roy Wood. It was recorded on the 21st of March, 1968 at Olympic Studios in London, and was issued as their fifth single on the 30th of August. Despite their previous chart success, the song only charted at number 53 on the UK Singles Chart, despite all of their previous singles having reached the top-5 on that chart. [1] [2] Although the song did not appear on the band's second studio album, Shazam , it did appear as the fourth bonus track on the 2007 reissue of the album, alongside its B-side, "Omnibus".

Contents

Background and recording

"Wild Tiger Woman" was much heavier than the band's earlier singles, bearing the influence of Jimi Hendrix, whom the group greatly admired and had often played on the same bill with. [ citation needed ] Wood and rhythm/bass guitarist Trevor Burton had sung backing vocals on the track "You've Got Me Floating" from The Jimi Hendrix Experience's album Axis: Bold as Love . [3] For the "Wild Tiger Woman" session, musician Nicky Hopkins played piano. According to Wood, producer Denny Cordell was not present for the mixing of the track and so it was handled by the band themselves and the engineer, which he felt resulted in an inferior mix. [4]

According to Burton, "It had the heavier rock'n'roll sound we should have been playing all along, and I really thought it was on its way to the very top." [5] Wood was less enthusiastic: "The song's all right. I wouldn't choose to sing it now." [4]

Commercial reception

Unlike their first four singles, which had all reached the UK top five, it did not even make the Top 40. A factor in this failure to chart may have lay in the lyrics which included the line "tied to the bed, she's waiting to be fed", which led to the single being banned from Radio 1. [6] Another factor was that the single's mono mix was muffled, as compared to prior Move singles. [7] (A recent first-time stereo mix shows that the tune was nicely recorded, just initially poorly mixed.)

Its failure was a disappointment to the rest of the group, who conceded that it had been something of a mistake, and that the more melodic B-side, "Omnibus", would have been a more suitable A-side instead. They announced that they would probably disband if their subsequent single did likewise. [8] [9] The song that they chose for it, "Blackberry Way", became a number 1 hit, however, and so the group did not disband until 1972, when they were supplanted by Electric Light Orchestra. [10] [11] [12]

Personnel

The Move

Additional personnel

References

  1. ↑ "Move". Officialcharts.com. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  2. ↑ Roberts, David (1998). Guinness Rockopedia (1st ed.). London: Guinness Publishing Ltd. p.  282. ISBN   0-85112-072-5.
  3. ↑ Unterberger, Richier (2009). The Rough Guide to Jimi Hendrix. Rough Guides. p. 75. ISBN   978-1-84836-002-0.
  4. 1 2 Sharp, Ken (30 September 1994). "Roy Wood: The Wizzard of Rock". The Move Online. Archived from the original on 15 January 2008.
  5. ↑ Shazam, 2007 CD reissue, booklet notes.
  6. ↑ "A beginner's guide to: The Move". Counteract – News | Music | Film | Food. 2 January 2018. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  7. ↑ Larkin, Colin, ed. (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music: Morricone, Ennio - Rich Kids. MUZE. p. 42. ISBN   0195313739.
  8. ↑ Howard, David (2004). Sonic Alchemy: Visionary Music Producers and Their Maverick Recordings. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 126. ISBN   9780634055607.
  9. ↑ Kutner, Jon; Leigh, Spencer (26 May 2010). "265". 1,000 UK Number One Hits. Omnibus Press. ISBN   978-0857123602.
  10. ↑ Burns, Lori; Lacasse, Serge (2018). The Pop Palimpsest: Intertextuality in Recorded Popular Music. University of Michigan Press. p. 127. ISBN   9780472130672.
  11. ↑ Picking up where the Beatles left off ... Jeff Lynne and ELO. Photograph: Andre Csillag/Rex Alan McGee (16 October 2008). "ELO: The band the Beatles could have been". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  12. ↑ Van der Kiste, John (21 January 2017). Jeff Lynne: Electric Light Orchestra - Before and After. Fonthill Media. ISBN   978-1781554920.
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