The Sweet

The Sweet (also referred to as Sweet, and originally called Sweetshop) are a British/American glam rock band that rose to worldwide fame in the 1970s with their most prolific line-up: lead vocalist Brian Connolly, bass player Steve Priest, guitarist Andy Scott, and drummer Mick Tucker.

The band were formed in 1968 and achieved their first hit "Funny Funny" in 1971 after teaming up with songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman and record producer Phil Wainman. During 1971 and 1972, their musical style followed a marked progression from the Archies-like bubblegum style of "Funny Funny" to a Who-influenced hard rock style supplemented by a striking use of high-pitched backing vocals.

The band achieved notable success in the UK charts, with thirteen Top 20 hits during the 1970s alone, with "Block Buster!" (1973) topping the chart, followed by three consecutive number two hits in "Hell Raiser" (1973), "The Ballroom Blitz" (1973) and "Teenage Rampage" (1974). The band turned to more hard rock style with their mid-career singles like 1974's "Turn It Down". Their first self-written and produced single, "Fox on the Run" (1975), also reached number two on the UK charts. These results were topped in West Germany and other countries on the European mainland, where the band was very popular. They also achieved success and popularity in the United States with the top ten hits Little Willy, The Ballroom Blitz, and Fox on the Run.

The Sweet (album)

The Sweet was a compilation album released as Sweet's debut album in the USA, substituting for 1971's "Funny How Sweet Co-Co Can Be", which was not given a US release. (The band's second album, "Sweet Fanny Adams" was also not given a US release, but tracks from that and the band's third album "Desolation Boulevard" were combined on the US version of that album to compensate for this.)

The album consists primarily of singles and B-sides released in the U.K. and Europe in 1972 and 1973. One of the singles, "Little Willy", was Sweet's first and greatest hit in the U.S. and was released as a single. The singles "Wig-Wam Bam", "Hell Raiser" and "Block Buster" were also on the album. Commercially it did not do well, only reaching #191 in the charts.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Brian Connolly, Steve Priest, Andy Scott and Mick Tucker except where noted.

  • "Little Willy" (Mike Chapman, Nicky Chinn) - 3:13
  • "New York Connection" - 3:35
  • "Wig-Wam Bam" (Chapman, Chinn) - 3:03
  • Hard Times (disambiguation)

    Hard Times is an 1854 novel by Charles Dickens.

    Hard Times may also refer to:

    Film and television

  • Hard Times (1915 film), a silent British film directed by Thomas Bentley based on Dickens' novel
  • Hard Times (1975 film), an American drama starring Charles Bronson
  • A popular professional wrestling promo cut by Dusty Rhodes in October 1985 during his feud with Ric Flair
  • Hard Times (1988 film) (Tempos difíceis), a 1988 Portuguese film directed by João Botelho
  • Hard Times (British TV series), a 1977 series based on Dickens's novel
  • Hard Times (Canadian TV series), a 1975 documentary series
  • "Hard Times", an episode of the 2000-01 Canadian TV documentary series Canada: A People's History
  • Music

  • Hard Times (Laughing Hyenas album), 1995
  • Hard Times (Peter Skellern album), 1975
  • "Hard Times" (Patrick Wolf song)
  • "Hard Times" (James Taylor song), 1981
  • "Hard Times" (Run–D.M.C. song), 1984
  • "Hard Times" (Lacy J. Dalton song)
  • "Hard Times" (Plan B song)
  • Hard Times (musical), a 2012 off-Broadway production by Larry Kirwin using songs by Stephen Foster
  • Hard Times (1975 film)

    Hard Times is a 1975 film starring Charles Bronson as Chaney, a drifter who travels to Louisiana during the Great Depression and begins competing in illegal bare-knuckled boxing matches. The movie was Walter Hill's directorial debut.

    Plot

    Chaney (Charles Bronson), a mysterious, down-on-his luck drifter during the Great Depression, arrives in town in the boxcar of a freight train. He comes upon a bare-knuckled street fight run by gamblers. After the bout, he approaches one of the fight's organizers, the fast-talking "Speed" (James Coburn), and asks Speed to set up a fight. Betting his few dollars on himself, Chaney wins with a single punch.

    Speed wants to become Chaney's manager. They travel to New Orleans, where Speed intends to enter Chaney against local fighters at long odds. Chaney takes a cheap sleeping room. At a diner, he meets Lucy Simpson (Jill Ireland), a lonely woman whose husband is in prison. They begin an uneasy affair.

    Chaney cautions Speed that he wants to make a little money to "fill a few in-betweens," and then move on. Speed recruits a cutman, the medical school dropout Poe (Strother Martin). An opium addict ("a dyed in the wool hophead") Poe is relieved when Chaney accepts him.

    Hard Times (1915 film)

    Hard Times is a 1915 British silent drama film directed by Thomas Bentley and starring Bransby Williams, Leon M. Lion and Dorothy Bellew. It is based on the 1854 novel Hard Times by Charles Dickens.

    Cast

  • Bransby Williams as Gradgrind
  • Leon M. Lion as Tom Gradgrind
  • Dorothy Bellew as Louisa
  • Madge Tree as Rachael
  • Mr. Forrest as Stephen Blackpool
  • F. Lymons as Josiah Bounderby
  • Will Corrie as Sleary
  • Clara Cooper as Cissie Jupe
  • J. Wynn Slater as James Harthouse
  • Bibliography

  • Giddings, Robert & Sheen, Erica. From Page To Screen: Adaptations of the Classic Novel . Manchester University Press, 5 May 2000
  • Mee, John. The Cambridge Introduction to Charles Dickens. Cambridge University Press, 2010.
  • External links

  • Hard Times at the Internet Movie Database

  • Podcasts:

    PLAYLIST TIME:

    You're Not Wrong for Loving Me

    by: The Sweet

    Take me up when I fell down
    you're like the sunshine in the sky
    You are fine to have around
    It's plain to see, I'm satisfied
    People say, you're not good to me
    you're not wrong for loving me
    Don't lay me down
    Kind of things that in my life
    no one knows but you can guess
    my goal in life's to meet the rainbow
    Seems like things are never there
    People say, you're not good to me
    you're not wrong for loving me
    Don't lay me down
    Doo di doo doo di doo ...
    Take me up when I fell down
    you're like the sunshine in the sky
    You are fine to have around
    It's plain to see, I'm satisfied




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