Here it is at least, 30 years after the fact – the Repertoire Records digitally remastered CD release of the first Move album – plus 16 bonus tracks (if only there were that many ELO holy grails to be found…!).
While I won’t deny that ELO might not have found its commercial voice with a two-headed monster (Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood) at the steering wheel, trying to go in two directions at the same time, never underestimate Roy Wood, especially not as a songwriter and arranger. He had the novel idea of quoting classical music in pop songs, and occasionally boosting the band’s sound with string players, some three years before the name Electric Light Orchestra ever appeared on a record spine. Some of the Move’s best songs (or my personal favorites, at least) – “Mist On A Monday Morning”, “The Girl Outside”, “Cherry Blossom Clinic” (the very Beatlesque short original version, not “Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited”, which is mistakenly labeled as the original on many budget compilation CDs) – sound like nothing so much as the embryonic sound of ELO. In fact, due to the fact that the Move had a little bit of financial backing, as opposed to the untested waters forged by the first ELO record, some of the string sounds are more lush than anything ELO did until 
Eldorado. And, though it isn’t a string-laden classic, ladies and gentlemen, you haven’t heard it all until you’ve heard Mr. Bev Bevan croon “Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart” – even “Ben Crawley Steel Company” pales next to this timeless recording. How Bev never got started on a solo career as a vocalist, I’ll never know!
- Yellow Rainbow (2:34)
- Kilroy Was Here (2:43)
- (Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree (3:00)
- Weekend (1:46)
- Walk Upon The Water (3:22)
- Flowers In The Rain (2:21)
- Hey Grandma (3:10)
- Useless Information (2:56)
- Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart (2:48)
- The Girl Outside (2:54)
- Fire Brigade (2:22)
- Mist On A Monday Morning (2:30)
- Cherry Blossom Clinic – original (2:30)
- Night of Fear (2:15)
- Disturbance (2:47)
- I Can Hear The Grass Grow (3:06)
- Wave Your Flag and Stop the Train (2:56)
- Vote For Me (2:48)
- Disturbance – alternate mix (2:00)
- Fire Brigade – alternate mix (2:17)
- Second Class (She’s Too Good For You) – Roy Wood instrumental(2:05)
- Cherry Blossom Clinic – different take (2:52)
- (Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree / stereo (2:57 – stereo mix)
- Weekend / stereo (1:46 – stereo mix)
- Flowers In The Rain / stereo (2:28 – stereo mix)
- Useless Information / stereo (2:56 – stereo mix)
- Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart / stereo (2:49 – stereo mix)
- The Girl Outside / stereo (2:53 – stereo mix)
- Walk Upon The Water / stereo (3:22 – stereo mix)
Released by: Repertoire
Release date: 1968 (remastered edition released in 1998)
Total running time: 78:18
