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
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