The Sweet Spot - The Sweet - The Sweet Featuring "Little Willy" & "Blockbuster"

 

The Sweet Featuring "Little Willy" & Blockbuster - 1973

So, Sweet had a hit across the pond. "Little Willy" reached #4 on the US Singles charts, #1 in Canada, #3 US Billboard Hot 100 and was #18 for the year in the US.  It was inevitable that that song, along with many other singles would get repackaged for sale.

This is that record. 

Bell put it out and it does contain seven tracks that are on the previous albums we covered. 

However, there are three that make this collection essential. "Need a Lot of Lovin', a Sweet penned track and two brilliant Chinn and Chapmans: First is the precursor to "Ballroom Blitz", the enormous "Blockbuster" and my favorite Sweet song, one of my favorite songs of all time, "Hell Raiser".

A couple things about Hell Raiser: First off, it was released in 1973. The same year as Rocky Horror Show. I don't know if O'Brien was listening to Sweet or if Chinn and Chapman heard the original songs from the stage show but Hell Raiser came out just before Rocky and they share the same DNA. 

Here's the other thing. When my band played our version of Hell Raiser in concert, people would come up to us and ask us what that Motley Crue song was that we did. It was then that I realized the direct relationship between the original glam bands, with makeup and spandex and the 80s glam metal bands, who also wore spandex, makeup but added more hair spray. There's a direct line from Sweet and Rocky Horror to Crue and all the Glam Metal bands of the 80s.

And if you wanna hear our version, it's on  our album. Which you can buy here: https://throttlebacksparky.bandcamp.com/

4.5 out of 5

A Side: Little Willy, Wig Wam Bam, Hell Raiser, Blockbuster

BlindSide: New York Connection, Done Me Wrong All Right, You're Not Wrong for Loving Me

The Sweet Spot - The Sweet - The Sweet's Biggest Hits

 My band covered a Sweet song. 

I have a long love for the bubbleglam tunes by this group. 

Then I went to a record store and they had inherited someone's Sweet collection. He was an inveterate fan. Clippings. Hand written lyrics. 17 unopened copies of Off The Record (I only needed one).

I decided to pick up where he left off. 

Let's look at the more than 30 Sweet records I have. 

The Sweet - The Sweet's Biggest Hits - 1972

I was really little. Like, teeny. And I was on the back of my aunt's bicycle. She had a transistor radio and she listened to top 40 radio. And one of the biggest hits of the day was by The Sweet. 

It was "Little Willy".

"Little Willy" might as well have been "Funny Funny" or "Co Co" with a heavier T. Rex stomp and a touch of modulation. Where "Bang a Gong" was brilliant but a little laconic, "Willy" had just a bit more edge. 

Still unreleased outside of Europe, this collection overlaps with Funny How Sweet on a few tracks but includes 7 singles and b-sides like "Poppa Joe" which modulates 5 times and really seems to be an excuse to practice that kind of escalating weirdness and "Alexander Graham Bell.

But, what I think is most exciting and telling is track 3, ""Done Me Wrong All Right". That one is written not by Chinn and Chapman but Brian Connolly, Steve Priest, Andy Scott and Mick Tucker. Not their first releaase as Sweet but a definite departure from the Bubblegum Pop. It's heavier and almost prog rock.

If you asked Andy to talk about this he would tell you, the real Sweet was on the B-Side. 

And this collection ends with three more of those, which, when you get to, make you think you're actually listening to a different band. 

3.75 out 5

A Side: Wig Wam Bam, Little Willy, Poppa Joe, Funny Funny, Alexander Graham Bell

BlindSide: Done Me Wrong All Right, You're Not Wrong for Loving Me

The Sweet Spot - Sweet - 10 Years On Top (Funny How Sweet Co Co Can Be)

 My band covered a Sweet song. 

I have a long love for the bubbleglam tunes by this group. 

Then I went to a record store and they had inherited someone's Sweet collection. He was an inveterate fan. Clippings. Hand written lyrics. 17 unopened copies of Off The Record (I only needed one).

I decided to pick up where he left off. 

Let's look at the more than 30 Sweet records I have. 

Sweet - 10 Years On Top - 1978

I recently gave a lecture about Glam Rock, tracing it's modern roots from the Beatles, through The Monkees, The Archies, T. Rex, Bowie, Elton, Queen into Sweet and culminating with Motley Crue.

And the throughline was advertising because once The Beatles hit, finding a way to capitalize on their success was a priority, which is how we got The Monkees.

The Archies made a song about Sugar and got a Saturday Morning cartoon show. Or it was the other way around. 

One of the best at writing that sort of sugary bubblegum confection was the team of Mike Chapman and Nikki Chinn and in the late 60s, they teamed up with producer Phil Wainman and an up and coming band called The Sweetshop. Incidentally, 10 years later, Wainman would produce the New Wave classic "I Don't Like Mondays" by The Boomtown Rats.

Sweet's origin story goes back to a National contest highlighted on BBC1 and featured Ian Gillan on vocals. 

But, once they put the actual lineup we would come to know together and start working with Chinn and Chapman, they started releasing a bunch of bubblegum singles. 

Their first album, Funy How Sweet CoCo Can Be, was not released in the US, which is why we are starting here, 10 years after their formation. 10 Years on Top is essentially Funny How Sweet, minus 2 tracks and adding one.

And that's something Sweet would do a lot: Put out compilations that were missing a track or two. So completists like myself would have to buy more and more and more.

Let's listen to the origins of The Sweet, which is the name they would go by until they dropped the definite article "the".

This is The Sweet Spot. A reflection on the original Bubblegum Glam band. 

So, Funny How Sweet Coco Can Be is basically a collection of singles that the band put out when they connected with upcoming songwriters Chinn and Chapman. Funny Funny is basically their version of Sugar Sugar. And it was hit. 

Peppered in among the pre-fab hits were some songs written by the band themselves, like Honeysuckle Love. And some misfires, like their cover of Reflections. 

But, when you listen to Santa Monica Sunshine, it's obvious, this is the sound of the 70s. It's influenced by the Southern California aesthetic, hence the title. That was the nexus of rock music and hollywood and Sweet, led by Chinn and Chapman were basically writing the songs that would influence just about every TV show from dramas to cop shows to kids programming for the next few years. 

I don't think you get any memorable Sid and Marty Krofft shows without these songs (and tracks like them).

While this album contains a couple later "hits" like, "Wig Wam Bam" and "Man from Mecca" and is missing the b side "Jeanie", this is the place to start with Sweet if you can't get a copy of Funny How Sweet, which is really difficult to find outside of Europe. 

3.75 out of 5

A Side: Co-Co, Funny Funny

Blind Side: Santa Monica Sunshine, Tom Tom Turnaround

DownSide: Reflections