THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

575-The Move-Blackberry Way.

1969-Number 1 single.

Best Bit-At 0.36. I do realise that some will think it a bit sad, but I have checked my sat-nav, and it appears that there are nine Blackberry Way’s in the UK.

The Move were formed in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, in 1965, from several locally based Birmingham groups, with the intention being to cherry pick the best available talent around at that time. The original line up comprised of Roy Wood, (see also best songs 821 and 239) (multi-instrumentalist) Bev Bevan, (drums) Carl Wayne, (1943-2004) (vocals) Trevor Burton, (guitar) and Ace Kefford, (bass) Kefford left the group in 1968, Burton left in 1969, and Carl Wayne left in 1970. Rick Price, (1944-2022) (bass) was a member between 1969-1971, and Jeff Lynne, (guitar) (see also best songs 970 and 25) was a member from 1969-1972. The Move officially split up in 1972, with Jeff Lynne, Roy Wood, and Bev Bevan going on to form the ‘Electric Light Orchestra.’ The Move reformed with original, and new members, to tour between 2004-2014, and then again in 2016. There has been a total of 13 official members come and go between 1965-2016, after which the group was finally retired. The reason they called themselves ‘The Move,’ was because all band members had moved from other groups.

The discography of The Move includes four studio Albums released between 1968-1971, and 18 singles issued between 1966-1974, there are also 20 official compilation Albums, one live Album, and one extended play (EP) available. In the UK, 10 of their singles have reached the top 40, with ‘Night of Fear,’ (1966) and ‘Flowers in the Rain,’ (1967) (the first record to be played on BBC Radio 1, on September 30th, 1967) both peaking at Number 2, and ‘Blackberry Way’ giving them their only Number 1 single. In America, unlike many of their contemporaries of that time, they failed to achieve any commercial success, despite touring there.

‘Blackberry Way’ was released as a stand alone single in November 1968, it was written by Roy Wood, with the production being by Jimmy Miller (1942-1994.) Roy Wood sang lead and backing vocals on the track, as well as playing the guitar, and the sitar, while Trevor Burton played bass, and Bev Bevan the drums. Richard Tandy, (1948-2024) who was never an official member of The Move, but performed with them on several occasions, played the harpsichord, while the mellotron performer is uncredited. The groups vocalist Carl Wayne had refused to sing on the track, as he felt that The Move’s management were pushing Roy Wood to the forefront of the band and himself to the background, by encouraging Wood to write The Move’s songs, and allowing The Move to record songs which Wayne did not sing lead on. Wayne was also unhappy with the musical direction he felt that the group were going in.

‘Blackberry Way’ was produced by Jimmy Miller, who was born James Miller, on March 23rd, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York, United States, he died on October 22nd, 1994, from liver failure, at the age of 52. Jimmy Miller first rose to prominence when working with the English singer/songwiter Steve Winwood, and the various groups he played in, including the ‘Spencer Davis Group,’ ‘Traffic,’ and Blind Faith.’ Miller is best remembered for the five Albums he produced for The Rolling Stones, between 1968-1973, starting with ‘Beggars Banquet,’ and finishing with ‘Goats Head Soup.’ In the late 1970’s Miller produced two Albums for the English Rock band ‘Motorhead,’ ‘Overkill,’ (1979) and ‘Bomber,’ (1979) and in 1991 he was a co-producer of ‘Screamadelica,’ the third studio Album, and commercial breakthrough for the Scottish Rock band ‘Primal Scream’ (see also best songs 724.)

‘Blackberry Way’ can be filed under the musical genre of ‘Baroque Pop,’ which is also sometimes called ‘Baroque Rock.’ It is a ‘fusion genre,’ that combines Rock music with particular elements of Classical music. In Baroque Pop recordings, musical instruments including ‘Harpsichords,’ ‘Oboes,’ ‘French Horns,’ and also string quartets figure prominently. In Classical music, the term ‘Baroque’ is used to describe the very best ‘Classical Music’ of Europe, approximately between the years of 1600-1750, with some of its most prominent composers being J. S. Bach (1685-1750) and Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741.) In ‘Pop Music,’ ‘Baroque Pop’ was at it’s commercial peak between 1968-1973.

On ‘Blackberry Way’ the songs ‘bridge’ is lifted from the intro of the 1968 song ‘Good Old Desk,’ by Harry Nilsson (1941-1994.) ‘Blackberry Way’ is a sad song about a failed love affair. The narrators memories of a failed romance come flooding back as he walks around Blackberry Way. The song has been cited as an answer song to the Beatles ‘Penny Lane.’ Roy Wood has said,’We were all very influenced by what the Beatles were doing, because they were the best songwriters around.’ Roy Wood has also said that ‘Blackberry Way’ is his favourite song of ‘The Move’ of all time, commenting that ‘It could have been performed in any era and still worked.’

Blackberry way, absolutely pouring down with rain, it’s a terrible day. Up with the lark, silly girl I don’t know what to say, she was running away. So now I’m standing on the corner, lost in the things that I said, what am I supposed to do now.’