California Man was the last hit for The Move and effectively the first for the Electric Light Orchestra in all but name when they appeared on TOTP in April 1972.
The Move had already evolved into the Electric Light Orchestra, and had even released their debut album, when this tribute to classic 50s-style rock’n’roll in general, and Jerry Lee Lewis in particular, gave them their 10th and final hit in 1972.
It is early ELO in all but name, with Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne trading verses and liners, a riff borrowed from Gershwin, and a line-up including a double bass and baritone sax (played by Wood), with Bev Bevan on drums.
This was their tenth and final single in a career that saw the Brummie band evolve from the whimsical psychedelia of I Can Hear The Grass Grow and Flowers In The Rain through their natural inclinations towards hard-driving blues-rock to the pop of Fire Brigade, Brontosaurus and Blackberry Way before becoming the first incarnation of ELO with Wood at the helm.
Unbeknown to me back then, or even just now, Roy Wood wasn’t The Move’s singer at the beginning. He wasn’t even the second guy to get the job. The band began as a five-piece in 1965 with four of them splitting the vocals on different songs – and sometimes the same song – and coming together to sing harmonies. Carl Wayne was the original lead singer, followed by bass player Chris “Ace” Gefford. But by 1970 Roy Wood, who played guitar and wrote all their hits, had taken over as the front man.
Managed by The Moody Blues’ manager, Tony Secunda, they made their name via a series of outrageous publicity stunts, once dressing up as gangsters for a residency at the Marquee, and with Wayne trying to outdo The Who’s appetite for destruction by taking an axe to a TV set and demolishing it onstage.
Fun facts x3: Flowers In The Rain was the first song ever played on Radio 1 when it went on air in 1967, and also featured an uncredited woodwind and string arrangement by Tony Visconti, who was working as assistant to producer Denny Cordell at the time. The song reached No.2 but Wood received no royalties because their manager, Secunda, promoted the record with a cartoon of Prime Minister Harold Wilson in bed with his secretary, Marcia Williams, and successfully sued for libel, donating the royalties to charity in perpetuity. In retaliation, the band fired Secunda and replaced the manager with the even more notorious Don Arden.