November 27 – Sweet! A Glam Entrance To The Scene 51 Years Back

Sweet! Just in time for Christmas, fans of one of Britain’s first and foremost Glam rock bands had a chance to have their favorites on an LP. The Sweet (who sometimes lost the “the” and just went by “Sweet”) put out their debut album this day in 1971. It had the incongruous title Funny How Sweet Co-co Can Be, which borrowed from their two hit singles and of course, the band name.

The Sweet formed in the dust of a few other bands, in London in 1968. They had an ear for both the Archies and The Who and set out to make melodic, “bubblegum” hard rock, something rather new back then. The quartet of singer Brian Connolly, drummer Mick Tucker, guitarist & keyboardist Andy Scott and bassist Steve Priest played their first gig in spring of ’68 and shortly after signed to Fontana Records. However, their first single, “Slow Motion” never got out of slow motion to move onto the charts, so they were dropped and then signed to EMI Records. The label famous for having the Beatles before and the Sex Pistols (briefly) later, believed in The Sweet’s musical direction and trendy, “glam” look with coiffed hair and platform boots. They made the smart move of teaming them up with the then up-and-coming duo of Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman who began to write material for them and would eventually produce them also. This worked much better than the Fontana effort, with their first single “Funny Funny” making it to #13 in the UK. Some – Casey Kasem being one – thought it was a bit too obvious a nod to the Archies and “Sugar Sugar” but the fans didn’t seem to mind. The second single, in summer of ’71, “Co-co” did better still, getting to #2 at home and actually being a #1 hit in South Africa and some continental European lands.

So, with the band on the rise, and having a few new tunes ready, it was time to launch the album. Funny How Sweet Co-co Can Be contained the two hits and a handful of other tracks which were already released plus several new tracks, mostly written by Chapman and Chinn. As well there was a cover of the Supremes “Reflections” and some later editions also included covers of classics “Paperback Writer” and “Great Balls of Fire.” However, with no brand new single released from it, the Brit fans didn’t find a lot to entice them to the checkouts and the album failed to chart there. Surprisingly, in Finland it hit #1.

However, they kept releasing singles readily and “Little Willy” soon became their next top 10 in the UK and before long, they’d break it big over here as well with Desolation Boulevard and the song “Ballroom Blitz”, another Chapman and Chinn effort.

Allmusic gave it a decent 4-stars calling it a “record of almost unholy pop pleasure” which was the “first step towards establishing Chinn and Chapman as a songwriting brand name”. They liked the singles and some of the material although they did caution listeners some of the new tracks were “a lackluster rendering of …unappealing American soft rock.”

So perhaps instead of a “sweet” dessert, …Co-co was just the appetizer!

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October 28 – Gilder Glam Resulted In Hot Single

Glam rock was bigger in Britain and Europe in the ’70s than here in North America, with acts like the Sweet and T-Rex being huge there and comparatively little-noticed here. But there were exceptions to that, and one of those came on this day in 1978 , when “Hot Child In The City” by Nick Gilder hit #1 in the U.S.

Gilder was at the time 26, Brit-born but a longtime resident of B.C., Canada. He’d come to musical attention first as the frontman of the band Sweeney Todd, who’d scored a major #1 hit at home in 1976 with “Roxy Roller.” After Nick and his distinctive and seductive voice left them, he was replaced – briefly- by Bryan Adams, who as we know went on to some serious leather-jacketed fame in the ’80s and movie soundtrack glory in the ’90s.

“Hot Child in the City” was the lead single of his debut solo album, City Nights. If his long blonde-hair and makeup looked a little like some of the Glam sensations from across the pond, his sound did even more. Which is likely little coincidence as he was a fan of bands like The Sweet and got their producer-extraordinaire, Mike Chapman to produce this record. Chapman went on to work on The Knack’s smash as well as Blondie’s Parallel Lines weeks after finishing up this one.

Perhaps only in the wild, liberated, yet oddly innocent ’70s could a song about underage prostitutes become a massive mainstream radio hit, but that’s what this one was. He says he was inspired to write it after seeing, and being shocked by, the number of teen prostitutes he saw on the street the first time he went to Hollywood. The same basic theme created the follow-up (a top 30 hit in Canada), and its ahead of-its-time video (apparently no longer offered on Youtube) , “Here Comes The Night.” “Hot Child in the City” earned him a platinum single in the U.S. and a huge, but short-lived fame at home in Canada… where it had been at #1 but got replaced on this day by another Canadian, Anne Murray and “You Needed Me.”

Gilder has put out some seven more solo albums through the years, but not come close to the level of success he had in late-’78 singing about Hollywood hookers. He did have another major hit however; he wrote the Scandal ’80s hit “The Warrior.” Currently, he still lives in the Vancouver area and is back with Sweeney Todd for infrequent shows.

September 26 – Still Glam After All These Years

Happy birthday to one of the most stylish and style-setting singers of our time. Bryan Ferry turns 77 today! Ferry is of course best-known for being the suave singer for Roxy Music although he’s actually compiled a heftier catalog of records on his own than with the British group.

Roxy Music, along with T-Rex and David Bowie more or less started the whole Glam Rock movement in the ’70s, and then also rather Bowie-like, morphed into one of the premier “new romantic” acts of the ’80s. Ferry actually got a degree in Fine Arts and was briefly an art teacher before concentrating on music and forming Roxy Music around the end of 1970. Their first album took Europe by storm and was nothing if not new and avant garde. Through the years, especially after Brian Eno quit the group, it morphed into a stylish, elegant pop outfit remembered for 10 UK top 10 singles including their #1 cover version of John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy.” During the Roxy years, Ferry put out a number of solo albums heavy on old cover versions ranging from “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” to relatively contemporary tunes like “Don’t Worry Baby.” After the band broke up, he put out more original material, with his first post-Roxy album, Boys & Girls hitting #1 in the UK and being a reasonable success in North America as well, perhaps thanks to the minor hit single “Slave to Love” , aided by his presence on the Live Aid stage with David Gilmour in his band. Ferry’s put out a total of 16 solo studio albums, his last one, Bittersweet, four years back, being credited to Bryan Ferry & his Orchestra, consisting of reworkings of old Roxy and solo songs like “Dance Away” and “While My Heart Is Still Beating” done in a Big Band/Jazz style. Fittingly, he’s appeared of late as a cabaret singer in the German TV show Babylon Berlin. And on top of that, he’s contributed to a bevy of soundtracks including Bright Lights, Big City, Phenomenon and Legend.

By the way, if you think he has the looks of a model, you’re right. Marks & Spencer used him as a fashion model for menswear in 2006! Californians have a chance to see for themselves this week; Roxy Music is wrapping up a 50^th Anniversary tour with shows in San Francisco tonight and L.A. on Wednesday.

September 16 – Bolan’s ’70s Image Was No Dinosaur

Britain lost its’ favorite “20th Century Boy” 45 years ago today – Marc Bolan. The singer died at age 29 in a car crash in London this day in 1977.

The T-Rex frontman was a passenger in his girlfriend Gloria Jones’ car when it ran off the road and hit a tree. Jones was a singer herself, being the singer who first recorded “Tainted Love”, the huge ’80s Soft Cell hit. Bolan was born Mark Feld but took his stage-name in the 60s with “Bolan” being short form for BOb dyLAN, whom he idolized and emulated at one time. However, by the end of the decade he’d started the band T-Rex, which was  far removed from the blue-jeans-and-politics delivery of Dylan. Bolan would soon become one of the originators of the sound and glitzy style that became “glam rock.” David Bowie’s longtime producer Tony Visconti remembers “What I saw…Marc Bolan was raw talent. I saw genius…I saw a potential rock star in Marc, right from the minute I met him.” Over here, the band was little known besides for the single “Bang a Gong, Get it On.” In the UK though, they were one of the dominant acts for years, with four #1 singles: that one plus “Metal Guru”, “Hot Love” and “Telegram Sam”, plus four more which hit #2… all between 1970-72! . They went on to be a significant influence on the likes of Morrissey and Johnny Marr of the Smiths, R.E.M., Bauhaus/Love & Rockets and even their elders, The Who. Morrissey was a particularly big fan. “”What kind of kids love T Rex?” he mused, “School-hating anarchists.” “20^th Century Boy”, covered by the likes of the Replacements and Chalk Circle in the ’80s, had a second chart-life in Europe in 1991 when Brad Pitt appeared in a Levis ad using the song. Columnist Stephen Patience pointed out the irony in that as Bolan “himself was more of a satin-flares man” than blue jeans enthusiast !

After his death, T Rex tunes were covered by bands as varied as Def Leppard, Guns N Roses, Bauhaus and Adam Ant, plus of course Robert Palmer’s Power Station, which had a hit with “Bang A Gong, Get it On.” London placed a statue and commemorative plaque in his honor near where he had the fatal accident, on what would have been his 60th birthday.

August 25 – Apparently It’s Their Day

August 25 is designated “Kiss and make-up Day” – boy, those good people at Hallmark never stop trying do they? – so what better day to look at the band Kiss…and makeup!

If ’70s bands like Pink Floyd or Chicago were known widely for their songs but without many of their fans having a clue what they looked like, Kiss was the opposite. Even people who didn’t know one tune by them instantly recognized them by their looks… or at least, their on-stage, on-camera looks. Because Kiss created a huge brand for themselves by way of their costumes and, more importantly, crazy face designs, of striking black (or in one case, silver) painted designs on ghostly white background makeup. There was guitarist Paul Stanley “Star Child”, drummer Peter Criss as the “Cat Man”, guitarist Ace Frehley, the “Space Ace” or “Spaceman” (using the flashy silver makeup) and the focal point, bassist Gene Simmons, with his bat-wing eyes as the “Demon.” That coupled with heavy leather outfits, full of spikes, metal inlays and high-heel, S&M-ready boots. It would be hard to walk down the street in their stage outfit without being noticed, no matter where the street. Ironically, it actually did help them go about their ordinary, off-stage lives anonymously. In the pre-internet, pre-social media age, no one really had a clue what they looked like, which Stanley liked. He says now “there is a certain mystique that is gone because everything is known. I think mystique is healthy.”

The idea for the makeup and wild costumes, not to mention the envelope-pushing stage show with the pyrotechnics and blood-spitting displays, was all Simmons who from the start had an idea of making Kiss a very lucrative “rock brand” instead of another “rock band”.

“At the same time we were forming in New York (around 1973), there was a very big glitter scene,” he told reporters some years back. “Boys were basically acting like girls…we were more like football players. All of us were over six feet tall, and it wasn’t very convincing.” Still he was game for it, but “the very first pictures (of Kiss), we looked like drag queens.”

But Simmons wasn’t going to be another, run-of-the-mill, long haired, jeans-clad band. ”We weren’t a Grateful Dead kind of band that would get on stage and look worse than the roadie who delivered our stuff. That doesn’t negate what the Dead were doing, it just wasn’t us.”

So, looking silly as glam rock pretty boys, he hit upon the idea of being larger-than-life comic book-style characters. He designed the makeup and personas himself. That, coupled with the wild, much talked-about, high-energy shows worked to make them huge quickly. He mentioned to the Pittsburgh Tribune recently that within two years of them starting, it was clicking. “It wasn’t about the albums. It was about the shows getting bigger and bigger. And it was about the fervor, how crazy the fans were getting…we didn’t have any hit singles, and here we were (headlining a show at Anaheim Stadium in California).” Which was fine with him, because he also says “anything that prevents a band from becoming as mega as possible is complete idiocy to me.”

Of course, soon they did have the hit singles, notably “Beth” and “I Was Made For Loving You”, but it is worth noting that unlike the vast majority of bands, their first hit album was a live one, Kiss Alive. Since then they’ve racked up ten platinum albums at home, and 15 more gold ones. And toured around the world numerous times to enthusiastic crowds. Except perhaps for awhile in the ’80s and early-’90s. In 1983, they famously decided to go naked…well, not “naked” really, but without their famous makeup and costumes. Although the album that brought that in, Lick It Up, did no better nor worse than most of their earlier material, the tour was met with noticeably smaller, less wild crowds. Eventually, they returned to the Comic Book characters.

They’re currently on what they say will be their farewell tour, a lengthy world tour running through next year. In full costume. Which says 70 year old Paul Stanley, is part of the reason they’re calling it a day. He notes that it takes him a minimum of an hour to get into full garb before a show and “if we were a band wearing t-shirts and jeans, we could do this into our 90s.But we’re carrying around 30 to 40 pounds of gear, running around, making it look easy.” So rather than be reduced to jeans or carrying around the gear, groaning and limping, he says they want to go out with a bang.

June 16 – Bryan & Brian Made Memorable Entrance 50 Years Ago

Fifty years ago saw one of rock’s more unusual acts make their debut. Roxy Music, and their self-titled album made their appearance this day in 1972. And what an appearance it was. The band sported platform boots, shiny space-age costumes and makeup that would take “glam rock” to another level…fitting perhaps for a group then led by art school grad and teacher Bryan Ferry and experimental synthesizer guru Brian Eno (who’d later go on to drop the “Brian” from his name and achieve huge fame producing records for the likes of U2).

At the time, they were joined by classically-trained guitarist Phil Manzanera, sax man Andy MacKay, drummer Paul Thompson and bassist Graham Simpson; Simpson is rather a forgotten man in their history since he quit them shortly after recording the first album (so brief was his Roxy run that some of the reissues of the album substituted a different band photo inside, with replacement Rik Kenton instead. That was on the inside LP gatefold, the outside one started something of a Roxy Music tradition, in having a beautiful young woman on it, in this case Kari Ann Mullen, a model who’d soon marry Mick Jagger’s brother.

Roxy Music was recorded in under three weeks in the spring of ’72, resulting in a record which was both rather spontaneous-sounding yet perhaps not adequately produced. That despite bringing in King Crimson’s Pete Sinfield to produce it. The reason for the rushing was in all likelihood not so much wanting to avoid any staleness in the studio as much as trying to stay on budget… the band and their manager financed the recording all themselves, being unsigned at the time they hit the studio. Of course that didn’t last long; Island Records signed them shortly after hearing the record/demo, and got Reprise Records at the time to sign them for North America. Little surprise because even though they’d not put out a record, their was a big buzz about them with the British press keeping “an ear to the ground” and Roxy playing several of the songs live on John Peel’s famous radio show before even recording them.

The nine-song set was difficult to describe, other than “avante garde” or “experimental”. The process making it seemed to be that Ferry would write the song, come up with the framework then ask Eno to mess around with it using his synthesizers and tape effects. Although the lyrics were seldom straight-forward, the inspirations for the songs were varied and more literate than many band’s; “The Bob” for instance, stood for “The Battle Of Britain”; “Re-make, Re-model” (probably the best-received of the songs on the original disc) was drawn from a ’60s arthouse movie with an insistent “CPL 593H” in the chorus – apparently the license plate of a car driven by a sexy woman Ferry had seen – while “2HB” was an ode to Humphrey Bogart.

The reception was warm, if confused at the time, although few of the early British reviews seem to have been archived online. Crusty American critic Robert Christgau wasn’t sure what to make of it; he compared it to “the sheen on a piece of rotting meat” but added there were “enough weird hooks to earn an ‘A’ for side one” but he was unimpressed with side two, which he figured drew too much on Eno’s work. He called Eno “a balding, long-haired eunuch lookalike.”

Later reviews would be good, although most agree in the band’s Eno-era, the follow-up, For Your Pleasure was better-recorded and had stronger songs. Rolling Stone now grade the self-titled one 4-stars and rank it as the 62^nd best debut album of all-time. They call it “nerdy art rock” and figure “rarely did the twain meet” between that and “sexy glam” until this record. Q give it 5-stars retroactively, allmusic 4.5. The latter label it “falling halfway between primtivism and art rock ambition” leading to a “startling redefinition of rock’s boundaries.” Brit journalist Chris Shade applauded its “innovative clash of ’50s rock, barking sax and space age electronics.” Pitchfork give it 9 our of 10 but did criticize the “ratty production.” Ferry himself might agree with that; he was said to be unhappy with the sound of the LP and he re-recorded several songs including “2HB” the way he thought they should be for his solo album Let’s Stick Together.

The album did well in Britain, especially since technically there were no singles released off it. A few weeks after recording the album, they went back and recorded the very catchy “Virginia Plain” and released it as a 7” . It got to #4 at home and #6 in New Zealand (curiously it “rose” to only #99 in Australia, disproving the idea that the two ‘Down Under’ island nations had identical tastes). By the time Reprise put it out in North America, they’d tacked the single onto the album, and most CD releases of it include it as well.

The album made it to #10 in the UK and went gold, though it’s worth pointing out that that was actually the weakest showing of any of their studio albums there.

Roxy Music are set to embark on a 50^th Anniversary tour, though they will be playing music from their entire career rather than just spotlighting the one record.

March 23 – Ferry/Eno Combo Kept Pleasing In ’73

Fans were pleased by Roxy Music this day in 1973. The then art rock quintet put out their second album, For your Pleasure 49 years ago today. The album picked up where their eclectic and odd debut album left off the year before. For fans it’s noteworthy for both being the most “out there” of their output and for being the last one with Eno on it. He quit the band shortly after the record came out, to chase his own musical rainbows and get more seriously into production – something that U2 would be very grateful for about a decade later!

They recorded it at George Martin’s Air Studio in London (not to be confused with Abbey Road where Martin did so much of his magic with the Beatles) and had another Beatles connection on it. They brought in Chris Thomas to co-produce with them (and possibly John Anthony, who’s credited on some versions of the albums and not on others.) Eno seemingly began to cut his chops as a producer on this one but having Thomas to help was invaluable. Previously he’d been working extensively with Procol Harum in the studio and had assisted Martin with the last few Beatles recordings, allegedly doing the full production on their song “Happiness is a Warm Gun”.

The songs were written by Bryan Ferry and it was Ferry at his most adventurous. Add to that unusual instruments (Ferry played guitar on one track, an oddity, and mellotron on several; Eno did all sorts of ahead-of-its-time things like playing around with tape loops in the studio to add other-wordly effects) and striking arrangements and you have a very odd-sounding record. Odd, but strangely catchy. The standouts were the album’s opposites. On the one hand, there was the dynamic, glam rock track “Do the Strand”, which was a single in much of Europe and sounded precisely like a hit single. On the other, there were the lengthy, moody, more than a little creepy “The Bogus Man” and the ode to a rubber sex doll, “In Every Dream Home A Heartache”, with lines like “My plain-wrapper baby, your skin is like vinyl” and which became a standout in a slightly livelier version on their first live album, Viva!

The album squeaked into the American album chart but was far from a hit, but at home in Britain it made it up to #4 and went gold (every Roxy studio album would go gold or better there, when all was said and done) despite the lack of a hit single. “Do the Strand” wasn’t released domestically as a 7” then, and the band was riding on the success of “Pyjamarama”, a top 10 standalone single released almost simultaneously (and later added to many pressings of the album and CD).

Critics liked it then, and still do. Q consider it the 33rd best British album of all-time and Rolling Stone now include it among the 500 greatest albums – British or otherwise – ever calling it “highly stylish, abstract-leaning art rock”. Pitchfork rate it 9.5 out of 10 and noted at length that both Ferry and Eno came from low-income, working class homes and went to art school and both were vivid influences on them; feeling “rat-trapped” in the “impermeable class system” and influenced by being surrounded by artists as youth, they gravitated towards glamor and glitz and viewed music as their escape. Allmusic consider it one of the band’s four 5-star albums, particularly “Do the Strand” and loving how “the tensions between Brian Eno and Bryan Ferry propelled their music to great, unexpected heights.” Heights they would perhaps top in some future albums but never with the level of unexpectedness.

 

 

March 4 – DJs Were Getting It On The Radio 50 Years Ago

Huge at home in Britain but essentially a one-hit wonder in North America, T Rex had their one hit here shine 50 years back. “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” peaked at #10 on Billboard this day in 1972.

In the UK, it was the second #1 hit for them after “Hot Love.” It sat in the midst of a run of 10-straight singles to make it into the top 5 there. It was no surprise to them that it did well in the States. Bolan wrote it in L.A. with the idea of making a hit that would be palatable to the American market as well as the home one. He actually wrote it late one night while partying at the house of Howard Kaylan, aka “Flo” of Flo & Eddie and The Turtles. The rocker was said to be about sex, but as Songfacts note, few objected since it’s “imagery was comically vague.”

The band led by singer Marc Bolan had begun in 1967 as a more folk-oriented group but by 1971’s Electric Warrior had moved into electric, psychedelia-tinged territory to the dismay of older, Hippie fans but delight of the younger crowds. It became their only non-compilation #1 album in Britain, and only gold one in the U.S. Along with David Bowie, they were more or less responsible for originating the Glam Rock movement, which later spurred on Roxy Music and Sweet and was a huge influence on the likes of The Smiths, Oasis and Siouxshie and the Banshees.

Robert Palmer and his side-project, Power Station actually did a wee bit better with their version of the song here in 1985, getting to #9 on the charts. That came some eight years after T Rex broke up after the untimely death of Bolan in a car crash.

December 17 – A Hunky Dory Day For Glam Fans

It was a Hunky Dory kind of day for art rock or glam rock fans 50 years ago. That was because the David Bowie album of that name came out this day in 1971.

The singer soon to be nicknamed “Starman”s own star was on the rise by then, particularly in his UK homeland. Hunky Dory would only accelerate that rise. It was his fourth album, but first on RCA Records, kicking off a highly-successful string of ’70s albums with them. He brought guitarist Mick Ronson back to work with him; the pair had already forged quite a friendship and creative bond through his previous work. Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman was the main keyboardist. However, RCA changed things up a little for it by bringing in a new producer to help Bowie, Ken Scott. Scott had been a studio engineer at Abbey Road studios and helped out on various Beatles albums and had just finished off working with George Harrison on All Things Must Pass.

Although they recorded the album in London, Bowie looked elsewhere for inspiration. He’d later say it “reflected my newfound enthusiasm for this new continent (North America) that had been opened to me.” That showed up not only a little in the sound but in the songs themselves…”Andy Warhol” and “A Song For Bob Dylan” for instance. On the former, although Warhol and Bowie would become friends, the American was apparently not altogether impressed. Bowie says the song was played for Andy and he hated it. He got up and left the room, “he had nothing to say at all, absolutely nothing.” There’s no word on whether Dylan liked his song any better.

When it was done it was an 11-song set that veered all over the musical map, as Bowie typically did at his best early on in his career. There was what the BBC described as the “proto-punk” “Queen Bitch,” written for Lou Reed, side by side with the almost folky “A Song For Bob Dylan.” And there was the lead-off song on the album that would become one of his signature pieces, “Changes.”

Reaction was enthusiastic right away. Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits exclaimed “my view is that David Bowie is the best writer in Britain at this moment.” Britain’s Melody Maker declared it “the most inventive piece of songwriting to appear in some time,” and the New York Times one-upped that, saying Bowie was “the most intellectually-brilliant man yet to choose the long-playing album as his medium of expression.” Unlike some albums of that era, the praise hasn’t dimmed in the decades since. Spin, Rolling Stone, Blender and allmusic all have retroactively given it a perfect 5-star rating at different times. The latter applauded him for “leaving heavy metal behind” (that being a reference to his prior album, The Man Who Sold the World) and called this one “fresh post-modern pop…a kaleidoscopic array of pop styles tied together only by Bowie’s sense of vision.” Rolling Stone have consistently ranked it as his second-best album (behind only Ziggy Stardust) and in the top 200 greatest albums of all-time on various lists they’ve published through the years.

For all that, critics seemed to like it a bit more than the ordinary public. RCA didn’t promote it that heavily, especially in North America where they feared he was a one hit wonder and perhaps worried about his androgynous look on the cover… a photo of him in which he said he was trying to channel Marlene Dietrich and the glory of the war-era Silver Screen sirens… a bit much perhaps for Americans to swallow, they thought. As a result (not to mention the fact that the music was boundary-pushing which seldom results in smash hits when they arrive) it did well in the UK, getting to #3, by far his best-showing to that point, and being his first to go platinum. There, the single “Life on Mars” hit #3. Over here though, the album peaked at #57 in the States, helped along by “Changes,” which just missed the top 40. Needless to say, as the world of music caught up to him through the ’70s, the album continued to sell decently and “Changes” has become a rock-radio staple, yet it still hasn’t moved enough copies to be certified gold anywhere besides Britain.

November 27 – Sweet…Now T-Rex Had Competition

Sweet! Just in time for Christmas, fans of one of Britain’s first and foremost Glam rock bands had a chance to have their favorites on an LP. The Sweet (who sometimes lost the “the” and just went by “Sweet”) put out their debut album this day in 1971. It had the incongruous title Funny How Sweet Co-co Can Be, which borrowed from their two hit singles and of course, the band name.

The Sweet formed in the dust of a few other bands, in London in 1968. They had an ear for both the Archies and The Who and set out to make melodic, “bubblegum” hard rock, something rather new back then. Their sound and appearance also owed more than a passing nod to T-Rex who were quickly becoming a sensation there. The quartet of singer Brian Connolly, drummer Mick Tucker, guitarist & keyboardist Andy Scott and bassist Steve Priest played their first gig in spring of ’68 and shortly after signed to Fontana Records. However, their first single, “Slow Motion” never got out of slow motion to move onto the charts, so they were dropped and then signed to EMI Records. The label famous for having the Beatles before and the Sex Pistols (briefly) later, believed in The Sweet’s musical direction and trendy, “glam” look with coiffed hair and platform boots. They made the smart move of teaming them up with the then up-and-coming duo of Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman who began to write material for them and would eventually produce them also. This worked much better than the Fontana effort, with their first single there, “Funny Funny” making it to #13 in the UK. Some – Casey Kasem being one – thought it was a bit too obvious a nod to the Archies and “Sugar Sugar” but the fans didn’t seem to mind. The second EMI single, in summer of ’71, “Co-co” did better still, getting to #2 at home and actually being a #1 hit in South Africa and some continental European lands.

So, with the band on the rise, and having a few new tunes ready, it was time to launch the album. Funny How Sweet Co-co Can Be contained the two hits and a handful of other tracks which were already released plus several new tracks, mostly written by Chapman and Chinn. As well there was a cover of the Supremes “Reflections” and some later editions also included covers of classics “Paperback Writer” and “Great Balls of Fire.” However, with no brand new single released from it, the Brit fans didn’t find a lot to entice them to the checkouts and the album failed to chart there. Surprisingly, in Finland it hit #1.

However, they kept releasing singles readily and “Little Willy” soon became their next top 10 in the UK and before long, they’d break it big over here as well with Desolation Boulevard and the song “Ballroom Blitz”, another Chapman and Chinn effort.

Allmusic gave it a decent 4-stars calling it a “record of almost unholy pop pleasure” which was the “first step towards establishing Chinn and Chapman as a songwriting brand name”. They liked the singles and some of the material although they did caution listeners some of the new tracks were “a lackluster rendering of …unappealing American soft rock.”

So perhaps instead of a “sweet” dessert, …Co-co was just the appetizer!