Tuesday 12 December 2023

Namesakes #63: The Sweet


My dentist always tells me not to have too many Sweets. Don't tell my dentist about this week's Namesakes!

THE SWEET #1

We'll start with a 1967 soul stomper featuring US garage rock guitarist Bobby Howard. 


THE SWEET #2

Discogs tells me this is not The Sweet you might think it is... instead, it's an "unspecified and unknown rock group, performer of tracks “The First Cut Is The Deepest” and “Summer In The City” falsely attributed to the 1970s glam rock group The Sweet on various compilations."


THE SWEET #3

And now for The Sweet we've all tasted from time to time (our old pal John Medd is addicted). Lots of Namesakes to this one. The band who would eventually become started out calling themselves Unit 4... until they became aware of another band with that name, changing instead to Wainwright's Gentlemen. It was at this point that they were joined by the late Brian Connolly (not to be confused, though I'm sure it has happened, with the comedian Brian Conley). They then changed their name to The Sweetshop... only to discover that someone else was also using that name, so they shortened it to The Sweet. After which they became the only band to use that name... 



SWEET #4

...although it didn't stop New York DJ and producer Richie Santana from dropping the definite article and using the alias Sweet for some bootleg mixes like this one in the late 90s.


Which Sweet could you suck on all day... and which one do you spit out immediately?


8 comments:

  1. It has to be #3, that's the first single I ever bought. I will now listen to all 4, I feel duty bound to do so

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  2. #1 is a belter of a track. I could listen to #2 again, and I am suffering the entirety of #4 despite an intense and profound dislike of the music of the eurythmics.

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  3. Will there be a follow up episode where you ask us to choose the best Unit 4. As well as the two you mention there is at least one more:

    https://youtu.be/K18uy2Vuos4?si=lcVVgEB3XVGp9a4W

    3 obviously, but 1 isn't bad.

    Brian's predecessor as vocalist with Wainwright's Gentlemen was someone called Ian Gillan. Whatever happened to him I wonder.

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  4. You could have warned me that #4 menaders on for 12 minutes, somehow getting even worse when that eurythmics song ends and jars into something else. So, of course, it's #3, one of the finest songs ever recorded.

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    Replies
    1. I didn't notice. I only listened to the first 20 seconds myself.

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  5. Yep - got to be #3 for me too. All tied up with memories of my early teenage years (much like for Mr Medd and CC)

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