Song of the Day 4/25: Sweet, “Little Willy”

EARWORM ALERT

Were they glam? Bubblegum? Power pop? Sweet was all of those things and more, depending on the song and the whims of their writer/producer, Mike Chapman, and his partner Nicky Chinn. Those two were aspiring songwriters in 1970 when they met the lads from The Sweetshop, as they were originally billed, who had released a few bubblegum singles with little success.

That changed once Chapman, later known as the slave-driving, egotistical producer of such classic albums as Blondie’s “Parallel Lines” and “Get the Knack,” took over. After a string of British bubblegum and novelty hits, the Sweet struck gold in the USA with “Little Willy,” released in 1972 but a hit upon re-released in 1973, when it rose to No. 3.

This Top of the Pops clip is from late 1972, when glam was mostly just Marc Bolan, so you have to give lead singer Brian Connolly some props for rocking a blue-and-green sweater vest over an all-yellow ensemble. Things would get glittery soon enough.

Sweet had several more hits, “Ballroom Blitz” and “Fox on the Run” in particular, but Connolly had a rough go of things. At one point thugs attacked him and kicked him in the throat, causing permanent damage to his vocal cords. He left the band soon after its last hit, 1978’s “Love Is Like Oxygen,” and drank himself into an early death at 51 in 1997. Lead guitarist Andy Scott, last surviving member of Sweet’s classic lineup, still has a version of the band on the road in Europe.