Master Index of Archived Threads


What's Your Favorite Sweet?

1. "Little Willie"

5 votes

2. "The Ballroom Blitz"

4 votes

3. "Fox on the Run"

1 votes

4. "Action"

0 votes

5. "Love Is Like Oxygen"

4 votes

6. Write in

0 votes

Edgy MD Sep 17 2016 12:11 PM

Teeny-Boppers turned Glam-Rockers turned ELO-Knockoffers turned Queen-Knockoffers, The Sweet did it all, if your version of "All" can be contained in a candy-colored jumpsuit and a pair of platform boots. Still, they had their moment, and managed to extend it into a chunk of time, and amazingly, some version of the The Sweet still tours today, just as much as they still can be found on oldies channels, playing some of the stupidest songs ever, but nonetheless begging, BEGGING to be turned up. You know the drill. You've got to take one Sweet song with you on your desert island tape. You have no choice. Evil will reign if you don't. So what's it going to be? 1. "Little Willie" (#3 in 1972) [youtube:1f570nbx]NM6I-pmV0RA[/youtube:1f570nbx] 2. "The Ballroom Blitz" (#5 in 1973) [youtube:1f570nbx]tqketmsRz1E[/youtube:1f570nbx] 3. "Fox on the Run" (#5 in 1975) [youtube:1f570nbx]qBdFA6sI6-8[/youtube:1f570nbx] 4. "Action" (#20 in 1975) [youtube:1f570nbx]TcQDi6u28VQ[/youtube:1f570nbx] 5. "Love Is Like Oxygen" (#8 in 1978) [youtube:1f570nbx]zRgWvvkSvfk[/youtube:1f570nbx] 6. Write in your own! This band was a worldwide phenomenon with monster hits in New Zealand, Norway and Japan and such that we never heard here!

cooby Sep 17 2016 12:40 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

Another hard one. Did they sing Blockbuster too? I voted for Love is like Oxygen.

Edgy MD Sep 17 2016 01:47 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

Sure. Good call! "Block Buster!" (Two words, and don't forget the exclamation point!) only went to #73 in the US, but hit #1 in the UK, Australia, Denmark, West (and probably East) Germany, the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. It went top 10 in four other countries. Hell yeah, you can vote for that! [youtube:33huf06w]LQkbfoUVPcY[/youtube:33huf06w] It's like a candy-glam "Roadhouse Blues."

d'Kong76 Sep 17 2016 03:34 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

We wore out Little Willy as ten-year olds. Weird band, I don't know much about them. Did they go through a lot of personnel changes over the years? The songs are kinda all over the map. I took Oxygen, but easily could have voted for a number of them based on the memories of what was going on with me at the time they were on the radio.

Edgy MD Sep 17 2016 04:38 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

Oh, yeah. LOTS of lineup changes, but mostly after they reunited in 1985, having broken up in 1981, tragically missing the early part of the video revolution, which might have allowed them another crack at the charts like it did Slade. They also splintered apart, with several early members of the band taking their own lineup on tour and competing for who was the real deal. Sweet, Andy Scott's Sweet timeline Brian Connolly Band, The New Sweet, Brian Connolly's Sweet timeline

Edgy MD Sep 17 2016 04:44 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

d'Kong76 wrote: We wore out Little Willy as ten-year olds. Fman?

d'Kong76 Sep 17 2016 05:18 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet? Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Sep 17 2016 06:00 PM

I had to look it up for posterity, Man From Mecca was on the B side. Whatever the funk that means, but we thought that song just was so cool. Silly kids. [youtube:3rbfksrb]a_3vvo6Ebb4[/youtube:3rbfksrb]

Rockin' Doc Sep 17 2016 05:42 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

I voted for "Love is Like Oxygen". Hearing it stirs up many fond memories of my freshman year of college.

Mets Guy in Michigan Sep 17 2016 06:18 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

Fox on the Run, all the way! I have a version of one of those bargain compilation discs where the songs are all re-recorded and it's billed as Brian Connolly and Sweet, so who knows who is playing on it. But it's a harder-edged version with fewer synths and it really rocks!

Edgy MD Sep 17 2016 06:38 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

Yeah, the two splinters look like Brian Connolly's Sweet and The Everybody-Else-from-Sweet Band. Tragic.

Fman99 Sep 17 2016 09:15 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

Edgy MD wrote: d'Kong76 wrote: We wore out Little Willy as ten-year olds. Fman? A bit advanced for me, I was probably 12 before I started giving Little Willy proper air time.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Sep 18 2016 04:29 AM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

I'll submit a write-in, as I've always enjoyed the stomp and casual racism of... [youtube:1oz4rhw7]ZyBFxjmJPqk[/youtube:1oz4rhw7] That said... "Fox on the Run" is a slick little production. And "Little Willy" is insistent, unrelenting in its catchiness. But, really, there's one answer to this question. You have personal preferences for others, sure, okay, I'll buy it. But "Ballroom Blitz" is one of the best-- BEST-- power-pop confections of all-time. NO ONE MAY DENY THIS.

MFS62 Sep 18 2016 01:37 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

My wife is my favorite sweet. None of those others in this thread need apply. Later

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 18 2016 02:33 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

Great topic! The Sweet were probably the most successful vehicle of the Nicky Chinn-Mike Chapman songwriting team that cranked out a metric buttload of catchy-as-hell-but-incredibly-stupid songs in the 1970s. In addition to Little Willie, Wag-Wam Bam, Block Buster!, Teenage Rampage and others for Sweet they wrote "Can the Can" for Suzi Quatro, Toni Basil's "Mickey" (originally "Kitty" for Sweet wannabe act Racey, for whom the also penned the dynamically stupid "Lay Your Love On Me") and Exile's "Kiss You All Over." Chapman was also an ace producer for Blondie, the Knack, and the force behind a lot of the outstanding but unrecognized work of Nick Gilder. Chapman also wrote or co-wrote "Love is a Battlefield" (Pat Benatar), "Heart & Soul" (Huey Lewis) & "Better Be Good to Me (Tina Turner). He belongs in RNRHOF right now! My understanding was that Sweet back then actually resented being puppets of those guys but the catchiness of their output cannot be disputed. I love them! "Fox on the Run" was their only non-Chinn-Chapman hit! Voting for Little Willy...

Edgy MD Sep 18 2016 04:23 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

Of all I knew about Chinn and Chapman, I had no idea that were behind "Kiss You All Over." I can imagine they woke up one morning and said, "The world is not enough! We need to conquer Nashville! Let's write a country/disco crossover song!" Nick Gillder, too! Man, they love high-voiced guys. I also associate "Fox on the Run" with "Hot Child in the City," both discomforting songs about underage teens getting tarted up and bringing their budding sexuality into the city. The sleazy, sleazy, late-seventies city. But give the lads a little more credit. "Love Is Like Oxygen" was also a step outside the ChinniChap factory.

Fman99 Sep 19 2016 03:38 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

These songs suck ass.

Frayed Knot Sep 19 2016 03:49 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

I gotta say that, while I'm familiar with at least some of these songs from decades-ago radio listening, I would not have been able to come up with the band if quizzed on them, nor would it ever have occurred to me that SWEET as a band name would be enough of a brand-name to keep it going after all these years. Like, it's tough to picture the internal conversation that would go; 'No dude, even though the roster has completely turned over we can't go with a new name because we'd lose all the equity that SWEET brings us!'. Really?

cooby Sep 19 2016 04:36 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

When I first heard of them I thought they must surely spell it 'Suite' Btw I think I always thought Love Is Like Oxygen was ELO

Ceetar Sep 19 2016 04:41 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

Hard to beat classic M&Ms

Edgy MD Sep 19 2016 04:58 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

cooby wrote: When I first heard of them I thought they must surely spell it 'Suite' Btw I think I always thought Love Is Like Oxygen was ELO Four out of five casual radio listeners will tell you "Fox on the Run" was ELO also. It's probably the best ELO song out there that isn't actually an ELO song.

d'Kong76 Sep 19 2016 05:01 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

Fman99 wrote: These songs suck ass. That's part of the nostalgic charm?

TransMonk Sep 19 2016 05:07 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

Not a fan, but when you say "Sweet", I always think Love Is Like Oxygen.

cooby Sep 19 2016 05:30 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

How about 'It's Magic'? Who sang that?

Edgy MD Sep 19 2016 05:40 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

ELO did "Strange Magic." "Oh, Oh, Oh, It's Magic" was a Scottish band called Pilot. Disappointing that an ELO-head like Fman doesn't have at least a little bit of a Sweet-tooth. I don't think I could sit through a Sweet album, but nary a one of these comes on my car radio that doesn't get turned up to 11.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 19 2016 08:28 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

I think they started out as *The* Sweet but that didn;t register as a plural noun with Americans so they went with just Sweet. FMan, you crazy. This shit's totally sweet.

Fman99 Sep 20 2016 12:03 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I think they started out as *The* Sweet but that didn;t register as a plural noun with Americans so they went with just Sweet. FMan, you crazy. This shit's totally sweet. Well I went back and listened to them again, just to be sure that they suck ass. And, let me tell you, these songs suck some ass. And not in the sexy, pay an extra $8 for it kind of way either.

G-Fafif Sep 22 2016 04:52 AM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

Fman99 wrote: These songs suck ass. Strange that spellcheck wouldn't let you type "kick". Though I voted "Little Willy," which rocked the fourth grade radio station I started, WMAG (for Magnolia School; didn't clear it with the FCC), I am also quite fond of one that didn't hit in the States. [youtube]ZyBFxjmJPqk[/youtube] Except for being totally culturally unacceptable in 2016, I'd love this to play on the big board as Cabrera, Cespedes & Co. circle the bases. Actually, I've been wanting it to happen since Delgado was clearing the fences in early 2009.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 22 2016 11:55 AM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

Great race here. Three-way tie for the lead and only 1 vote for "Fox"

Edgy MD Sep 22 2016 12:31 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

"Little Willie" and "Ballroom Blitz" both have insanely catchy verses and awesome hooky choruses (chori), but both have super-weird pre-chorus sections that dampen the affair for a few bars, I think. Nonetheless, I went for "Willie." I think I'll have the meaning of that song sussed by the time I'm 75. I've been making a lot of progress in recent years.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 22 2016 12:47 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

I think it's a story about a charismatic but stubborn dancer named Willie, who's a scourge on nightclubs around the city because their labor costs are too high.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Sep 22 2016 02:40 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

The weirdness of the choral leadoff in "Willie" is just odd. With "Blitz," it's part of the wall-to-wall WTF wack-a-doo-ness. T'is a feature, not a bug.

Edgy MD Sep 22 2016 03:17 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

In "Ballroom Blitz," the pre-chorus seems to come out of a Halloween song, or a Rocky Horror Picture Show song. (I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the RHPS composers were influenced by Chinn and Chapman. It may be a feature, but it's such a contrast with the other stuff, it doesn't work for me. It confuses me and slows me down in my otherwise raucous blitzing stampede.

sharpie Sep 22 2016 04:08 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

The Rocky Horror Show premiered in June 1973. Ballroom Blitz was released in September 1973. It was probably just something in the air rather than inspiration on either side.

Edgy MD Sep 22 2016 04:32 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

Wow. In my head, RHPS was more like 1977.

sharpie Sep 22 2016 05:56 PM Re: What's Your Favorite Sweet?

Rocky Horror Picture Show is 1975. The original stage version, The Rocky Horror Show, is 1973.