Drawn from a previous post, this is not part of my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).
An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!
The music of Sweet was huge for me in the '70s. I was happily addicted to AM radio, and Sweet's records were an integral part of that pop-music mainline directly into my eager veins. I don't know if I made note of the group itself when I was diggin' "Little Willy" and "Blockbuster" on Syracuse's Big 15 WOLF in 1973, but I knew the songs. "Little Willy" was a Top Ten hit across the country, and although "Blockbuster" struggled to breach the charts nationally (Billboard peak at # 73), it was in regular rotation on the 'Cuse airwaves.
I didn't know anything about Sweet. I don't think I even knew they were British, nor that they were considered part of an amorphous U.K. glam/glitter scene, alongside the disparate likes of Slade (whom I also loved), Suzi Quatro (with whom I was teen-crush besotted), and Gary Glitter, even the Bay City Rollers. I eventually saw all of those acts lip-syncin' on Supersonic, a weekly British jukebox TV show available via cable from New York's WPIX, and I presume I musta seen Sweet there, too.
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| Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) will never skip any excuse to post a picture of Suzi Quatro |
But it was another TV show--the venerable American Bandstand--that hooked me on "Ballroom Blitz." The group itself didn't appear on this particular Bandstand; it was just Dick Clark playing the record as his assembled AB dancers did their thing. It was 1975, two years after the song had been a hit in its native UK; it was called "The Ballroom Blitz" in England, and its definite article either fell overboard during the transatlantic journey or the name was changed at Ellis Island.
I was 15, watching American Bandstand as I sometimes did on a Saturday. I'm sure I ogled the girls, envied the guys, but most importantly, I listened to the damned song. I'd probably already heard it on the radio by then. But something about this televised rockin' pop moment just...clicked. It wasn't the sight of the girls bouncin' about, honest. It was the song. It's always the song.
"Ballroom Blitz" bopped. The phrasing is not accidental. About a year later, the Ramones would basically revamp "Ballroom Blitz" with some added chanting inspired by the Bay City Rollers' "Saturday Night" into their own masterful call to arms "Blitzkrieg Bop." Sweet provided the blueprint. It's quite possible that I would never have fallen so hard for the Ramones if Sweet hadn't prepared me for such rapture.
It took me and my minuscule record-buyin' budget a while, but I eventually acquired a copy of Sweet's Desolation Boulevard LP, most likely via the RCA Record Club. The album included "Ballroom Blitz" and its follow-up hit "Fox On The Run." "Fox On The Run" was my highlight on Side Two, but I mainly obsessed over Side One: "Ballroom Blitz," "The 6-Teens," "No You Don't," "A.C.D.C.," and "I Wanna Be Committed," the latter song almost certainly another inspiration for the Ramones. I played that side relentlessly, joyously. During my senior year, 1976-77, I often brought Desolation Boulevard to school for spins when I was hanging out at the newspaper office, as much a go-to album as my Beatles and British Invasion, my Raspberries' Best, my decidedly odd 2-LP compilation Heavy Metal, and the Monkees albums introduced to me by a girl I knew somewhere. As I learned about the Kinks, as I learned about punk, as I prepared to trade one set of experiences for the next in that overrated growin'-up sequence, Sweet was as important a part of my soundtrack as everything else.
It was electric
So perfectly hectic
Then the band started leaving
'Cause they all stopped breathing
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. As the man in the back said, "Everyone attack!," I retain my ongoing allegiance to a still-vivid recollection of listening to Desolation Boulevard during the musical crucible of my teens; I hear the song, and I remember. I remember what it meant to me, how great it was, how great it still is, how great it will always be. Are you ready, Steve? Uh-huh. Andy? Yeah. Mick? Okay. And alright, fellas. Thank you for being there when I needed you. Thank you for being Sweet.
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I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. You can read about our history here.
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