Every UK #1 Single Of 1973 Discussion Thread

Looks like Desolation Boulevard peaked at only #25 here, but the two singles added to the US version both hit top 5, and it's certified gold both here and in Canada.

Not that anyone asked for them- all of the Sweet's Billboard Hot 100 appearances:

Co-Co #99
Little Willy #3
Block Buster! #73
The Ballroom Blitz #5
Fox On The Run #5
Action #20
Funk It Up (David's Song) #88
Love Is Like Oxygen #8
California Nights #76

A NM UK pressing (orange RCA) of the "Funk It Up" 45 has been in my collection for years now and I have no idea how it ever got there.
also,
I'm speculating but I'll bet "Block Buster!" would have been another big hit here in the states if it weren't for the siren..

 

Like this clip from the Christmas '73 TOTP.



Darryl

 

Love Blockbuster but far prefer their other 3 singles from 1973.

Hell Raiser seemed to mark a new phase in their career, wholly unreminiscent of the wonderful Co Co and Poppa Joe.

 

After a quick perusal of the 45s I'd say the best songs on the chart are Whiskey in the Jar by Thin Lizzy and If You Don't Know Me By Now by Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes.

 

For anyone further interested in Sweet, here's the link to the UK singles poll I did a year ago.

The Sweet. U.K. Singles Poll. Pick Your Favourites.

Though I'm sure most of you have seen it.

 

Wouldn't it be easier to make a short list of those singles we don't like, there would be less than 5 on my list.

 

I'm surprised I have 20 of the 50 albums.
I don't know if I'm surprised I've that many or that few?

 

I’ve got 16 of those albums. Nearly all acquired years after 1973.

And, no, one of them isn’t Bobby Crush!

 

It’s very strange how Sweet’s incredible singles success didn’t translate to album sales. Gary Glitter, Slade and Suzi Quatro, all had decent selling albums in 1973.

 

Yep..my partner had the same copy! She still has it and it gets regularly spinned at our house.

 

OK, seeing as we're all Sweet-ie here...here's something I've been longing to ask for a long time on the forum. Our family were religious TOTP watchers down the years and I spent much of my childhood watching each episode week in, week during the 1970s & 80s. I have this one very distant memory of watching the Sweet performing on the show sometime before 1974 but have no memory of the song they performed. I do however remember the visual effects the BBC used as back-up - a load of flames drowning the band out as they played (similar to when U2 performed in 1981 with 'Fire'..except in B&W). Sadly, as most of the episodes of this era have been wiped, I've found nothing to validate this long - almost gone - memory. Does anyone else who lived in the UK at the time have a better memory than mine to recall this? Would really make my day...

 

I suppose, in the early days at least, the albums were very different from the singles. Maybe reviews suggested this so people didn't take the risk. It is, after all, a long way from Funny Funny to Sweet Fanny Adams.

Interestingly, it happened to Chinnichap's next major UK band, Smokie. They also made a bunch of excellent (mostly) self written albums - essentially the British Eagles - but they're known as a singles band.

With either band, people are missing out if they don't check out the long players.

 

So you are the one who bought 16 copies of Bobby Crush!

 

Great songs; amongst many more great songs!

Two great instrumentals in there, the sublime Focus, Sylvia, and the manic Hocus Pocus from the same, talented band.

 

No Teenage Rampage or Six Teens! Amazing what is / isn't successful around the world.

 

In Australia they released an album called The Sweet Singles Album which was huge. Where they went wrong was when Strung Up came out one of the records was completely useless.

 

Did you lose your hearing in 1972???

 

I cant remember that but if it happened then it would probably be when they performed Hellraiser on TOTP.
Hell = flames, that would be very TOTP...

 

Yeah. Not certain, but that was my first though too.

 

I remember this too, but like you can't be exactly sure of the single.

I'd suggest going to YouTube and checking out all the TOTP performances of these 1973 Sweet singles. Well, the ones that are left..

 

I never checked out Smokie's albums, but for some reason I never took to their singles either..

 

I’ll put the next single up later today. What with Little Jimmy, Sweet and the upcoming #1, we’ll be at the end of March already when it falls from the top.

 

Sweet - Blockbuster / Need A Lot Of Lovin'
What would the glam scene have been without Chinn and Chapman? Musical geniuses with an unbelieveable amount of great songs. One of the best songs of this side of Sweet. The self-penned flip is not bad either. Bubbling under, Glitter's Do You Wanna Touch Me, another real classic, but I think the lyrics work better sung by a woman, like Joan Jett.

 

They're essentially a country rock band. Their own songs, like The Sweet's, are quite different from their singles.

Always thought they've deserved much more respect, in the UK at least, than they get.

 

May give them another go. Their albums seem to be in print.