From the Music Vault: "The Sweet"
Today I’m going way back to the early 70s to the sweet, sweet sounds of ‘The Sweet’, who later renamed themselves to simply ‘Sweet’. Parties in school and elsewhere were incomplete without their music. And they are the band I am going to pay my homage to in this edition of “From the Music Vault”. This homage concentrates on their early years – the Glam Rock era, if you will.
Thapson
The Beginning
The Sweet were formed in that late 60s by Steve Connolly, who would be the lead vocalist, and Mick Tucker on drums. Initially they called themselves The Sweetshop, then changed to The Sweet. They then brought on Steve Priest, the bassist. After various lineups, they finally had a permanent lead guitarist in Andy Scott. It was after they teamed up with songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mark Chapman, that they scored their first big hit “Funny, Funny” in 1971. With the help of Chinn and Chapman, The Sweet scored many great hits and established themselves in the Pop/Glam Rock genre which was to bring them much fame.
Their initial successes would be heavily influenced by the bubble gum rock style and clever writing of Chinn and Chapman. After a few hiccups, they came out with another great hit in Poppa Joe which made them true international stars.
…”their evolution is so winded and multifaceted, this might turn into a history lesson…”
More than just Glam
However, The Sweet, while making it big in the glam-rock genre, also wanted to do heavy/hard rock stuff. This was to cause a rift with Chinn and Chapman who wanted the status quo. From 1974 onward they concentrated on evolving from the Glam to a more pure Hard Rock style. This new style helped them evolve into the more serious rockers they eventually wanted to be. However, it was the Glam Rock style that got them the higher accolades despite settling into their own styles eventually in the latter half of the seventies.
My intention here is not dwell on their history in detail as there’s enough of that out there, done by more specialized musical historians/intellectuals. And to be honest, their evolution is so winded and multifaceted, this might turn into a history lesson which I want to avoid.
All the Potential, but…
Suffice to say, it is rightly said they were very underrated and could have gone to bigger heights if it had not been for the unfortunate turn of events for their lead singer, Brian Connolly. During their recording sessions in 1974, he was involved in a fight where his throat was badly injured. Despite all attempts, his vocal abilities were damaged for life. Sure, they had some successes as Priest and Scott often stepped into his shoes, but I think their decline had started. They definitely started changing their image to “harder” sound, if I may call it that, and in process steered to a more mature audience.
But despite this, slowly yet surely, by 1976, they were declining in popularity and slowly fell apart with the final straw being the departure (forcing out?) of Connolly as his alcoholism and other vices had got the better of him. Also, their career was basically a battle between big hits, under the direction of someone else, or doing “doing their own thing” and the freedom it afforded them to experiment independently. Of course others may disagree with me as this is only my personal observation.
But I don’t want to be downer and the objective here is to remember “Sweet” for their music and their most fun years – at least as I see it. Let’s enjoy some of their major hits back then and how they’ve left an indelible mark on music history. And doing so I hope I hope to create an appreciation in your minds for what they accomplished in their heyday back in the early 1970s. So let’s check out some of the hits they will always be more popularly be remembered for. Again, there are many I’m leaving out to keep this brief, yet to the point.
‘Funny Funny’ (1971)
Back then I used to mistakenly think this song was sung by the artist who sang for “The Archies”. That tells you how much of a ‘bubble gum’ rock feel this song has. Of course, at that time, I just loved the song as it was and wasn’t into classifying anything. And, as far as I’m concerned: if the song sounds good, people like it, what’s the problem? The brilliance of Chinn and Chapman with their wordplay is unmistakable here.
soniclady89 / YouTube.com
‘Poppa Joe’ (1972)
This one for me was their super hit and signaled the kind of music that was to come from them. Check out the late Mick Tucker who was said to be arguably the best drummer from UK. If I’m not mistaken the two Limbo Dancers on this song were featured on the British Airways calendar we had back then. Can’t remember for what year that calendar was. Probably 1972 or 73. Maybe someone can correct me?
Official Sweet Channel / YouTube.com
‘Wig Wam Bam’ (1972)
These days this song could potentially be considered politically incorrect, but this was then. You can see how they’re very much on the Glam fashion and androgynous look. I suspect the “bottling incident” they experienced could have been due to this androgynous look which some did not appreciate? Being relatively young, I remember being somewhat embarrassed by the lyrics then.
Official Sweet Channel / YouTube.com
‘Co-Co’ (1971)
Another glam rock style number written by Chinn and Chapman which also had an island theme to it. It was their second hit after “Funny Funny” and reached top of the charts in some countries. This was the original sound that pushed “Sweet” to the top and noticed around the world. However it was one that they likely wanted to steer away from soon thereafter in favor of a more ‘hard-rock’ style. It was only after listening to it as an adult, I realized what the lyrics were as they sounded non-English to a young me back then.
Official Sweet Channel / YouTube.com
Blockbuster (1973)
It was apparently Sweet’s only song that reached number one in the UK. They were not comfortable with this originally as the riff resembled something others had already done, but were persuaded by Chinn and Chapman to proceed with – and it paid off with some deft sound effect at the beginning. Also notice how parts of Steve Priest’s controversial outfit is blurred out as the uniform he wore had controversial Nazi symbols which would definitely not fly today.
Official Sweet Channel / YouTube.com
So that was my take on the best of The Sweet. Actually, there’s much more they did, but I’ve mostly touch on some of their lighter hits which I remember from my younger days. Apparently, two versions of the band played until recently. One under Andy Scott and the other, Steve Priest. Priest, unfortunately, passed away on 4th June, 2020.
Just listening to this stuff takes me back to a different era that feels so distant and brings out many bittersweet memories. As an afterthought, I’m sure “Queen” were definitely inspired by the The Sweet as it feels like they picked up from where the latter left off. The rest is history. This was The Sweet and their contribution to the world of music. I’ll be back with another bit of memorabilia in “From the Music Vault” next time.
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