siLLy puPPy The debut album “Funny How Sweet Co-Co Can Be” from SWEET was a success in the band’s native UK and other regions of the world but was never released in the US. After that album’s 1971 release the bubblegum pop writing team of Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn who were steering SWEET onto the pop charts with one slick hit after another shifted gears and started focusing on singles instead of albums and therefore from 1971 to 1974 when the band morphed from an Archies inspired bubblegum pop band to a Who inspired hard rock entity. During this period SWEET only released a huge string of singles with no accompanying albums.

Many of the non-album singles were actually some of the bands biggest hits and best known including “Little WIlly,” “Wig-Wam Bam,” the #1 hit “Block Buster,” “The Ballroom Blitz,” “Teenage Rampage” and “Hell Raiser.” In order to collect all this singles into a nice album’s listening experience, SWEET released this compilation in 1973 that was intended to be a surrogate album and also served as the debut album in the US. While officially an eponymous release, this album often appears as THE SWEET: FEATURING LITTLE WILLY & BLOCKBUSTER due to the fact the two hits were advertised on the album cover. Looks and sounds tacky but that was the world of bubblegum pop of this era!

Originally featuring ten tracks, the CD reissue adds another five and the album covers the entire run of singles (except "Ballroom BLitz") and B-sides following the UK debut “Funny How…” to the album “Sweet Fanny Adams.” This marketing snafu is a constant source of headaches for modern databases and if that wasn’t bad enough, SWEET’s album “Destination Boulevard” was basically two completely different albums. The UK version a completely new album and the US album resembling a collection of singles and select tracks that more resembled this compilation album than a true album. Despite the band still being in its bubblegum pop phase, SWEET had begun the process of turning itself into a rock band during this period and there is a greater emphasis on guitar hooks, heavy bass and drum interaction and more rocking tempos.

In fact you can hear a huge leap from pop to rock from the track “Alexander Graham Bell” which came form the “Funny How Co-Co” sessions to the more heavy rockers such as “Hell Raiser” which is obviously the inspiration of how to mold the band Motley Crue in the following decade. Just listen to the opening riffs and it sounds exactly like the beginning of “Kickstart My Heart.” One of the reasons this collection of songs is so much better than the band’s UK debut is that the influence of Chapman and Chinn was tapering off and SWEET as a band was writing more of its own material however the band learned a thing or two from the duo and retained the infectious hooks only teased out in more interesting ways. However Chapman / Chinn written like “Blockbuster” and “Hellraiser” are still the best tracks on this one.

While this album gets thrown into the compilation bin on music databases, i would personally consider this one a bonafide SWEET album that emerged between the pure bubblegum pop phase of “Funny How Sweet Co-Co Can Be” and the band’s extraordinary “Sweet Fanny Adams” as it functions to collect all the loose material in between and throws them together. This is a surprisingly great album with many of the tracks featuring the fully developed hard rock drive inspired from bands like The Who and other early 70s hard rock bands. SWEET had clearly escaped the confines of its Archies imposes limitations and developed into one of the most addictive hard rock bands of the 70s. The one drawback of this album is that it didn’t include singles like “The Ballroom Blitz” and “Get On The Line” so Americans would either have to purchase British imports or wait until the US version of “Destination Boulevard” opened with the over the top dramatic single “The Ballroom Blitz.” For fans of the SWEET, this one is definitely highly recommended.

siLLy puPPy SWEET was one of the UK’s most successful glam rock bands in the 70s racking up thirteen top 20 hits in the UK and finding a good bit of international success as well. Starting out under the moniker Sweetshop the band went through a few members before the classic lineup of vocalist Brian Connolly, bassist Steve Priest, guitarist Andy Scott and drummer Mick Tucker took the band into huge success. This band formed in the greater London region in 1968 and began crafting their own catchy tunes while paying their dues in the club circuit. SWEET (also known as The Sweet) are most famous for having started as an Archies inspired bubblegum pop band as a result of hooking up with the blockbuster hit making machine duo of Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn before morphing into the more Who inspired hard rock band starting with the 1974’s “Sweet Fanny Adams” album.

FUNNY HOW SWEET CO-CO CAN BE was the band’s debut release that came out in 1971 right at the tail end of the bubble gum pop craze that had started in 1967 and ended about 1972. SWEET is one of the rare cases of a band that started out in the typical assembly line process of appealing to tweens and kids with an upbeat irresistibly catchy run of tracks and then later actually shed its skin and became a really good band in its own right on its own terms. However on this album the band hadn’t branched out into hard rock and was a pop band all the way. The album produced two UK hits, “Co-Co” hit #2 and “Funny Funny” made it up to #13, the latter of which displays a strong influence from The Archie’s 1969 hit “Sugar Sugar” which was a huge chart topping sensation.

The marketing strategy of SWEET resembled the British Invasion bands of the 60s with this album sporting different titles and album covers in different countries and many non-album singles appearing in the early 70s before the band transmogrified into a hard rock band. Many CD reissues will have many of the non-album singles (and B-sides) from this era but the original release of FUNNY HOW SWEET CO-CO CAN BE featured twelve tracks with most being quick eruptions of sticky sweet pop overload. The track “Tom Tom Turnaround” is the most glaring exception inching past the four minute mark and less saccharin than the other straight forward bubblegum pop tunes that sound a lot like late 60s band like The Monkees, The Arches and a harmony style adopted from the Hollies.

If you are only interested in the hard rock albums of SWEET then this is definitely one that you should skip as there are scant traces of rock whatsoever. This is pure sticky sweet pop through and through however if you have a sweet tooth for bubblegum pop which i do from time to time then this isn’t a terrible album at all. While all tracks aren’t created equal, there are more than enough excellent melodies laced with infectious vocal harmonies to hook you in and keep you engaged for the album’s run. My favorites include “Co-Co,” “Reflections,” “Jeanie” and the track that prognosticates a move to more rock influenced material with “Spotlight.” This last example actually displays rock chords and lead guitar and almost sounds like the band had already decided the direction it wanted to pursue only it was held back by selling their soul to the pop music machine which kept them cranking out the hits for the next several years. Overall this isn’t a bad album as i would’ve expected but obviously pales in comparison to the band’s peak years of “Sweet Fanny Adams” and “Desolation Boulevard.”

AtomicCrimsonRush Turn It Down is a good single rom the album Desolation Boulevard, very strong vocals by Connolly and a raucous riff. The real drawcard foe the fan is the B side which is quite hard to find on CD, Someone Else Will. Sweet loved to play this live with obscene lyrics and it can be heard live on bootlegs and the live side of Strung Up. However this studio version is toned down in the lyrics and better for it. It is a slow grinding song with offensive lyrics which may surprise some who are not familiar with Sweet's sleazier side.

AtomicCrimsonRush Give Us A Wink is perhaps the heaviest Sweet Album and features wall to wall guitars and very powerful vocals. The melodies are strong and there are some inventive structures in the songs.

It begins with the indispensable Lies In Your Eyes and this is followed up by crunching proto metal on Cockroach with the memorable lyrics "you crawl into my bed like a cockroach" and "you got a mouth like a VC10, but I love you". Keep It In follows with a great lead break and riffing guitars. 4th Of July is the other single and one of my favourites with its cool opening riff and very coarse vocals of Connolly. Action follows and this is quintessential to Sweet, a fantastic melody and very heavy guitars. This version is slightly longer than the single release with an extended intro. Yesterday's Rain is a cool slow bluesy thing with wonderful bassline and guitars. White Mice is a rocker with some strange lyrics "White Mice into your hand, out of my head". Healer is last and goes on too long but there's a nice feel to it, very slow and darker than usual for the glam rockers.

Overall this is as good as it gets for Sweet, among the top three Sweet definitely, and well worth a listen.

AtomicCrimsonRush Off The Record is a great Sweet album and perhaps the last one that showed thier hard rock side before the disappointing mellow approach on Level Headed and other albums. Connolly is in fine form and the music is energetic and dynamic especially the guitar work of Andy Scott.

The singles on this are Fever Of Love and Lost Angels which have the same formula as Ballroom Blitz and Fox On The Run. Catchy choruses, echoed vocals and strong riffs. The other songs are well worth a listen especially Windy City with the fantastic riff and lead break. There is a heavy side to Sweet shown on Live For Today, and Midnight To Daylight. Side 2 has some throwaways such as the poor disco like Funk It Up, and boring ballad Laura Lee. However Hard Times and She Gimme Lovin' are terrific.

Overall, a great album to get into before the band all but disappeared into obscurity.