20. Ayshea – Farewell (1973)
Roy Wood occasionally wrote for others – psych fans should check the Acid Gallery’s splendid 1969 single Dance Round the Maypole – and the single he made with girlfriend Ayshea Brough, an early 70s TV presenter, exemplifies his idiosyncratic pop skills and his kitchen-sink approach to arrangement: kettle drums! More oboe!
19. Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne – Me and You (1989)
At the end of the 80s – a decade where musical trends didn’t fit Wood’s approach at all – the Electric Light Orchestra’s architects briefly regrouped, recording two tracks that were never released. Me and You is the pick, offering a tantalising glimpse of what latter-day ELO might have sounded like had Wood never left.
18. Wizzard – Indiana Rainbow (1976)
The great lost Wizzard single (recorded for the rejected 1976 album Main Street) saw Wood grafting a charming big band-influenced song and arrangement on to a thunderous dancefloor-adjacent drumbeat. The music sounds surprisingly like the disco-swing hybrid of Dr Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band’s 1976 debut album, which might have accounted for its belated release.
17. The Move – Brontosaurus (1970)
By the release of Brontosaurus, Wood’s career was in flux: Jeff Lynne had joined the Move with plans to start ELO; Wood had started wearing backcombed hair and make-up that prefigured his Wizzard look. The track itself is proto-metal but still packs a great pop melody.
16. Wizzard – Meet Me at the Jailhouse (1973)
Wood was always keen to point out how different Wizzard’s albums were from their hits. He wasn’t joking, as evidenced by Wizzard Brew’s teenybopper-baffling 13-minute centrepiece Meet Me at the Jailhouse, which shifts between heavy riffing and rhythmless free jazz improv, laced with bracingly angular guitar shredding.
15. Roy Wood – Why Does Such a Pretty Girl Sing Those Sad Songs (1975)
Wood’s second solo album, Mustard, is almost as great as its predecessor, Boulders, repeating its Wood-plays-writes-and-produces-everything approach, if not its commercial success. But chart success isn’t everything: Why Does Such a Pretty Girl Sing Those Sad Songs is the most luscious and beautiful of Wood’s Beach Boys homages.
14. The Move – Hello Susie (1970)
The Move’s second album, Shazam, was a commercial disaster that precipitated vocalist Carl Wayne’s departure. But that was no reflection on its contents, as proven by the awesome Hello Susie – the sound of Wood applying his irrepressible pop smarts to music built for a new, hoarier, heavier, proggier era.
13. Roy Wood – Songs of Praise (1973)
Songs of Praise was written as a potential 1972 Eurovision entry for the New Seekers. At risk of sounding snobbish, it was far too good for that, a perfect example of Wood’s ability to pluck melodies that sounded instantly familiar – as if they’d been around for years – out of the ether.
12. Wizzard – Rock ‘n’ Roll Winter (Loony’s Tune) (1974)
You could view Rock ‘n’ Roll Winter as a more subtle sequel to the deathless I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday (it was supposed to be released in January while its predecessor was still in the charts): the tinsel is down, the festivities are over, the mood has turned to a kind of wistful optimism.
11. The Move – Wild Tiger Woman (1968)
An incredibly exciting single, Wild Tiger Woman’s failure on the charts might simply prove it was too far ahead of its time: its combination of rock’n’roll influence, a dense, wilfully artificial sound and fizzy overheated production make it sound less like a product of the late 60s than the glam era.
10. ELO – Look at Me Now (1971)
From the start, Lynne and Wood were pulling ELO in different directions – the former more Beatles-esque, the latter more obviously influenced by baroque classical music. It couldn’t last, but when their debut album worked – as on Wood’s drum-free, cello- and oboe-bedecked Look at Me Now – it makes you wish it had.
9. Wizzard – I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday (1973)
There’s something mildly aggrieving about this song’s annual success overshadowing the rest of Wood’s rich oeuvre. But, equally, writing something that becomes part of the fabric of national life is quite an achievement. Note the cash register that opens the track: a winning speck of cynicism in the tinselly facade.
8. Wizzard – Angel Fingers (A Teen Ballad) (1973)
Be My Baby opulently recast for the 70s, with lyrics that sum up the wannabe pop star’s raison d’etre – “If I could get a job with that cool rockin’ band / You’d notice me with that red guitar in my hand” – and ponder fandom’s transience: “Will Dion still be so important to you on your wedding day?”
7. Roy Wood – Dear Elaine (1973)
Wood’s debut solo album Boulders might be his masterpiece. Given the speed at which pop was moving at the time, it seems bizarre its contents were recorded in 1969-70 – they fitted the climate of 1973 perfectly. But then timelessness doesn’t date: the baroque loveliness of Dear Elaine would hit home in any era.
6. The Move – Fire Brigade (1968)
A masterclass in a particularly relentless kind of pop songwriting, Fire Brigade offers two and a half minutes in which every last second is crammed with hooks and earworm melodies: Byrds-y jangle, incredible vocal harmonies, twanging Duane Eddy guitar licks. The whole thing sounds like happiness rendered into musical form.
5. Wizzard – Ball Park Incident (1972)
A fantastic song and a head-turning statement of intent, Wizzard’s first release supersized the 50s rock’n’roll influence that ran through glam: a vast, thunderous wall of sound – two drummers, umpteen brass and woodwind instruments, honky-tonk piano, distorted guitars – topped off with a raw-throated vocal. What a fabulous single.
4. The Move – Blackberry Way (1968)
By now, Wood’s inability to stay in one place musically seemed to be wearing on his bandmates: Blackberry Way’s pivot into parent-friendly baroque pop – albeit of downcast, faintly psychedelic bent – helped hasten guitarist Trevor Burton’s departure, while vocalist Carl Wayne refused to sing it. Its fantastic melody sent it to No 1 regardless.
3. Roy Wood – Forever (1973)
By the time Forever made the Top 10, Wood had appeared on Top of the Pops in four different guises – the Move, ELO, Wizzard, and now solo – in 18 months. The song is just gorgeous, a loving hybrid of the Beach Boys and Neil Sedaka: both were credited “for inspiration” on the label.
2. The Move – I Can Hear the Grass Grow (1967)
The toughest example of Move on psychedelic form, in which the snarling superiority of the acid initiate towards “the people all in line” is undercut by the sense that the LSD experience has proved all too much: “I need you to help.” One of the great British psych singles, it still sounds awesomely powerful.
1. Wizzard – See My Baby Jive (1973)
“Roy Wood was a super-fan,” wrote Bob Stanley, approvingly, in his book Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop. “He wanted to be all of pop, all at the same time.” It’s a brilliant summation of an oeuvre so rich and eclectic that picking a No 1 is genuinely tough. See My Baby Jive is both a masterpiece and one of the maddest, strangest 70s chart toppers, a superb pop song with an utterly euphoric chorus, an act of chaotic, teeming sonic maximalism: five minutes long, packed with unexpected key changes, a French horn solo and an outro that refuses to end. A joy.
Listen to Ranked on Spotify – or transfer the playlist to Apple, Tidal or other services
