The Sweet Glam Rock Video Showcase

This was The Sweet's first UK hit single (making No.13 in March/April) and was also one of the first songs ever composed by Nicky Chinn and Michael Chapman, who would go on to compose many of the band's hits.

It was unashamedly modeled upon the Archies' "Sugar Sugar," and as Mick Tucker recalls, "[It was] very bubblegum, commercial, right for the time and definitely not to be sneezed at".

It was only in later years that it was acknowledged that vocalist Brian Connolly alone appears on this (and several other, early) performance, while guitarist Andy Scott was not even a member of the group when "Funny Funny" was recorded.

The Sweet's second UK smash was "Co-Co," a song encompassing the calypso sounds of the Caribbean, complete with steel drums and a breezy arrangement ideal for imagining palm trees and sunny beaches.

It is simplicity itself and the band members later confessed that it had little to do with their own musical tastes. As with the previous recording, they didn't have to play on the record, as vocalist Brian Connolly alone was present at the session, while producer Phil Wainman can be heard on drums. A monster hit worldwide, "Co-Co" gave Sweet their first ever U.S. chart entry (number 93), while it reached number two in the UK.

"Alexander Graham Bell" was a departure from The Sweet's, by now, recognised sound. Instead of the overtly bubblegum/glam style, the Chinn/Chapman writing team wrote this highly melodic ode to the inventor of the telephone, only to see it briefly scrape into the lower reaches of the UK Top 40 (No.33).

"Poppa Joe" returned The Sweet to the upper echelons of the UK Top 20 with a sound similar to the previous release "Co-Co".

Really, it is a far more accomplished composition than that bubblegum predecessor - one of the first to illustrate writers Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman's progression from pure pop constructions to more adventurous arrangements. "Poppa Joe" is revealed as a fascinating creation, building in pitch and tempo as it progresses.

It topped the chart in eight different countries, and reached number 11 in the UK.

The Sweet's first major American hit single, "Little Willy" was crammed full of innuendo and was an utterly irresistible stomping ode to -- well, that's best left to the imagination!

Its wild, singalong chorus is as infectious as any of the band's earlier releases, but with an arrangement that is moving closer and closer to The Sweet's own sound. Although the group was once again not required to play on the record, this would be the last time that happened.

The Sweet hated the song. Nicky Chinn recalled: "I became aware of that when we were told [by The Sweet] that "Little Willy" was a piece of rubbish and had no right to be released. It wasn't exactly a symphony, of course, but...it was a hit, and we told them it was going to be released whatever they thought of it."

The Sweet's sixth straight British hit was also the first on which the entire band was permitted to perform, and the group's own confidence and abilities shine through from the outset, a meaty guitar riff, the pounding drums, and the layered chorale vocals.

Another enduring Sweet tradition, a camp one-liner from bassist Steve Priest also made its debut here -- "try a little touch, try a little too much...".

"Wig Wam Bam" reached number four in the UK in September 1972, establishing Sweet at the forefront of the glam rock movement.

The Sweet had been writing their own B-sides and album tracks and all of the group's compositions were harder than the Chinn and Chapman songs and featured crunching hard rock guitars.

Consequently, the duo decided to write tougher songs for the group. "Blockbuster," the first result of Chinn and Chapman's neo-glam rock approach, was the biggest hit Sweet ever had in the UK, reaching Number One on the charts in early 1973 and eventually going platinum.

The Chinn/Chapman composition "Hell Raiser" was issued in May 1973 and was to become The Sweet's most dramatic single yet: a pyrotechnic rocker which opens with a hellish scream, rides a flame-thrower guitar, and explodes with volcanic riffs and rumbling drums.

In later years, Sweet would make a concerted effort to "go heavy," and lost a lot of their following as a consequence. In fact, "Hell Raiser" was already a neo-metallic raver in its own right but still managed to reach No.2 on the UK chart.

"Ballroom Blitz" was released as a single in 1973, where it reached No.1 in Australia and entered at No. 2 in the UK singles chart.

The song reached No.5 in the States and was one of that country's biggest hits of 1975. "Ballroom Blitz" appeared on the US version of The Sweet's 1976 album "Desolation Boulevard". It remains one of The Sweet's best-known songs and has been covered by a variety of artists.

The Sweet's first single of 1974, "Teenage Rampage" was the latest stage in the band's bid for full rock respectability - a raucous call to arms bearing a guitar attack that owes as much to Alice Cooper as it did the band's own musical tastes.

The crowd roar running through verses and chorus alike, meanwhile, gives the impression of it having been recorded at an even rowdier concert.

Once again, the single stalled at No.2 in the UK charts.

A savage slice of cynical nostalgia, "The Six Teens" (UK No.9) traces the fates of Bobby and Billy, kids growing up immersed in the revolutionary rhetoric of the late '60s, as they come to terms with the fact that the revolution they fought for was simply another mass-marketed gimmick.

Heady stuff for a simple pop song, although by this time -- mid-1974 -- Sweet themselves had moved so far from their own bubblegum beginnings that the only real shock was that Chinn and Chapman wrote this. It could have been a Deep Purple B-side. Or Queen -- that band borrowed an awful lot from Sweet in the vocal department, and it is one of rock history's saddest ironies that, when Sweet themselves tried to reclaim their harmonies during "The Six Teens," the U.K. media promptly condemned them for copying Freddie Mercury and co.

(Review by Dave Thompson)

"Turn It Down" received minimal airplay on UK radio and was banned by some radio stations because of certain lyrical content - "god-awful sound" and "For god's sakes, turn it down" - which were deemed 'unsuitable for family listening'.

As a consequence, this hard rocker of a song only managed a lowly chart placing of No.41 on the UK chart.

Released only in Australia as a single, Sweet's cover of "Peppermint Twist" went all the way to No.1 on that country's chart.

"Fox on the Run" was yet another Sweet Top Ten hit and taken from the album "Desolation Boulevard", their most successful LP release. The song reached the No.5 spot in the US and No.2 in the UK.

"Desolation Boulevard" marked a noticeable transition within the band, as they were attempting to adopt a slightly harder rock format. The band wrote "Fox on the Run" themselves, initiating a blatant bid to shed themselves of Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman's bubblegum songwriting recipe, which had been a staple of Sweet since the early '70s.

Even though "Fox on the Run" combined a heavy guitar crunch with Brian Connolly's high-pitched but rock-groovy vocals, it still harbored a slight glam rock sound in its flashiness. It may not be of the hardest caliber, but it proved that Sweet was headed toward a more serious sound.

Sweet's second entirely self-composed hit, "Action," was released in the UK in July 1975, and reached No.15. Six months later, it made No.18 in America.

"The Lies in Your Eyes" was one of The Sweet's least successful releases in the UK (No.35), but became more popular in Australia and parts of mainland Europe.

It would be two years before the band reappeared in the UK singles chart.

Sweet bounced back into the charts in 1978 with "Love Is Like Oxygen," but the single proved to be their last gasp. They never reached the Top Ten again, neither in the US, nor the UK.

While The Sweet's claim to fame surrounded their Glam Rock hits, in later years the group started to record tracks which brandished its true identity.

For years, the B-sides of the band's hit singles displayed its true direction, and once the tie with songwriters Chinn and Chapman was severed, The Sweet began to record the music it wanted to be heard.

Below is a selection of these tracks, which were included on the band's albums during the mid to late 70s.