Wild Tiger Woman

"Wild Tiger Woman"
Single by The Move
B-side	"Omnibus"
Released	1968
Format	7" single
Recorded	21 March 1968, at Olympic Studios, London
Genre	Blues rock
Length	2:55
Label	Regal Zonophone
Writer(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, and as with all the other A-sides of their singles, written by Roy Wood. It was much heavier than their usual style, bearing the unmistakable influence of Jimi Hendrix, whom the group greatly admired and had often played on the same bill with. Session musician Nicky Hopkins played piano.

According to Trevor Burton, the group's bass guitarist, "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."^[1]

The issued single had a very muddy sound (apparently this was recorded under difficult circumstances). The first-time-ever true stereo mix that appears on the 2007 UK Salvo Records CD of Shazam shows that the actual recording wasn't muddy; it was the original mono mix that was.

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 a line, "tied to the bed, she's waiting to be fed", which attracted the displeasure of the "fun police" at the BBC and led to the single being banned from Radio 1.

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. They need not have worried, as the follow-up, "Blackberry Way", went all the way to number 1.

References