Songfacts®:

• This Roy Wood composition is arguably the most recognizable song ever recorded by The Move. According to John Van der Kiste in The Roy Wood Story... one critic called it the best song Eddie Cochran never wrote. Actually, it sounds more like a Duane Eddy number with that distinctive twang.
  
  It begins with the sound of fire engines:
  
  Cast your mind back ten years to the girl who's next to me in school
  If I put my hand upon her leg, she'd hit me with a rule
  
  Running to less than two and a half minutes, it was released in 1968, initially on Regal Zonophone, produced by Danny Cordell, and backed by "Walk Upon The Water".
  
  Other releases include Polydor, Stateside, and in 1972, Fly Records. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England
• In a 1976 interview with Sounds, Roy Wood said, "When The Move began I had a lot of children's fairy stories I'd been writing and the songs grew out of them, childlike with a lunatic side like 'Fire Brigade.' I really worked on the words."
• This song is about a girl who is so hot, she can set the place on fire - thus it's a good idea to call the fire brigade. Around this time, The Move were known for their sizzling stage shows that drove their young fans crazy but didn't endear themselves to elders.
• At the time this song was released, Carl Wayne of the group called it "the most commercial number we've written."