Tiggsherby Posted July 20, 2005 Share Posted July 20, 2005 I found it odd, that yesterday and today, on two different radio stations in Philadelphia, I heard one of my favorite power pop songs of all time--"Fox on the Run" by Sweet. I haven't heard that song years on the radio in years. Is it being featured in a movie or something? Hey Matt Clark...how about the "numbers" on the Sweet, they had a few other great songs..thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy K. Posted July 20, 2005 Share Posted July 20, 2005 I heard it yesterday, myself, here on the airwaves in Seattle. Always did like the song. Kind of curious, though, if a live version existed(either legit or bootleg).....Never got to see those guys live as they did not play the SF Bay Area, where I grew up. The radio stations and concert promoters were not too keen on glitter and/or power-pop acts. That's why there was no such thing as a T.Rex or Raspberries concert in San Francisco during the early 70seither....despite the fact they were playing all of the midwest/East Coast/L.A........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marvin Posted July 20, 2005 Share Posted July 20, 2005 Sweet were big in Montreal prior to their big breakthrough hit "Ballroom Blitz." They had radio hits in the city with "Little Willy", "Wig Wam Bam", "ACDC", "Blockbuster", "Action", "Fox On the Run", and my personal favourite, "Love Is Like Oxygen."Marvin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marvin Posted July 20, 2005 Share Posted July 20, 2005 I should have added that the individual musicians were actually quite accomplished, though it might not have seemed that way listening to their material, and lead singer (R.I.P.) Brian Connolly was a great front man. Marvin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Posted July 20, 2005 Share Posted July 20, 2005 I heard "Love is Like Oxygen" yesterday on the radio. Hadn't heard it for a long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aggiesjc Posted July 20, 2005 Share Posted July 20, 2005 Always liked "Fox on the Run" from when I first heard it in kindergarten! I remember it stood out among the many songs we'd listen to on the schoolbus radio. Hadn't heard "Little Willy" in years (since the '70s), but on one of many trips to Kentucky that I made in the '90s, I finally heard it again on a Lexington radio station. That's when I realized how lame our local Northern California radio was. Both of those songs bring back really good memories of the '70s for me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Posted July 20, 2005 Share Posted July 20, 2005 They were also quite popular with the UK audience at the time -- I keep their entire catalog on my MP3 hard drive -- also, besides Brian Connelly, I think maybe even 2 of the other guys also died quite young, of non drug related causes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danmichel Posted July 20, 2005 Share Posted July 20, 2005 thanks to you folks...i just downloaded "love is like oxygen" and "fox on the run"...i remember playing "love is like oxygen" on the air when it was current...and "fox on the run" i had on 8 track when i was 16...alas "desolation boulevard" was eaten by my tape deck, like all my other 8 tracks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackhawkpat Posted July 20, 2005 Share Posted July 20, 2005 I once had the pleasure of attending a rocking concert of The Sweet in the seventies and the warmup act was a guy named, uhh, umm, what was his name again? Oh, yeah.....ERIC CARMEN!!!!!! (One of the best shows I ever saw and he next day the late, great Chicago Tribune columnist Aaron Gold predicted "stardom" for Eric.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hbecstacy Posted July 20, 2005 Share Posted July 20, 2005 Two members of Sweet has passed on...besides Connolly, drummer Mick Tucker died in 2002 of Leukemia.Bassist Steve Priest lives in the States and is pretty much retired from music.Guitarist Andy Scott leads (a la Joey Molland's Badfinger) "Andy Scott's Sweet," a band that tours and records in Europe to this day.There's good stuff at www.thesweet.com Great band! I remember when the Sweet/EC tour came to the Tower Theatre in Philly...I would've died to see that. I was too young to go! But I finally get to see that Carmen guy this Saturday...--Howard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Cartmill Posted July 20, 2005 Share Posted July 20, 2005 Sweet? Even though I was just a teen, everytime I would hear their hits on radio, I would cringe at the cornball lyrics in their choruses. Even the titles of their songs are something an 8 year old would make up. Any decent melody was zapped by a silly lyric that made you say, "Geeeeeez"...C'mon guys!They had great energy, but hey, so did Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer...Don't own any of their CDs either... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marvin Posted July 20, 2005 Share Posted July 20, 2005 A lot of those "cornball lyrics" in early Sweet songs were written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. Sweet's latter day music was written by the band and much stronger, in my opinion.Marvin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dougjack Posted July 21, 2005 Share Posted July 21, 2005 Great band! I remember when the Sweet/EC tour came to the Tower Theatre in Philly...I would've died to see that. I was too young to go! --Howard Howard, that was probably a great show. I know it was when it came to Columbus (OH), with Styx also on the bill. All 3 bands were "on" that night. Sweet came on and played 2 notes and all the power went out in the building! They stayed on stage and tried to lead the crowd in cheers and shouted stories at us. Eventually the power came back on and they seemed even more energized after that. And they rocked, big time. Whatever cheesiness problems people may have about their records, in a LOUD live setting, they really went over well. I couldn't make out the lyrics anyway, so that wasn't a problem. I do remember that they said they'd all met in prison! I'm assuming that was a joke. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim From Wisconsin Posted July 21, 2005 Share Posted July 21, 2005 Sweet made a lot of great music and influenced a lot of the 80's bands. Even Motley Crue - If you listen to the beginning of Sweet's "Hellraiser" and the beginning of Motley Crue's "Kick Start My Heart" they are almost identical.My favorite album is "Give Us A Wink". Every song is great.Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMMY TUNES Posted July 21, 2005 Share Posted July 21, 2005 WNEW-FM DISC JOCKEY AND BIG TIME RASPBERRIES FAN PLAYED "FOX ON THE RUN" QUITE OFTEN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew C. Clark Posted July 21, 2005 Share Posted July 21, 2005 The Sweet was a British rock band led by Brian Connolly (lead singer), Steve Priest (bass, vocals), Andy Scott (guitar, keyboards) and Mick Tucker (drums). Brian Connolly died on February 10, 1997 at the age of 52 of renal failure. Their first song "Co-Co" (co she ga ga oh, as heard in the chorus) (Bell) went to # 99 back in October of 1971. The next song would become their biggest hit "Little Willy" (Bell) & a gold record which debuted on the Hot 100 back in January 20, 1973. The song went to # 3 (kept from # 1 by War "The Cisco Kid" (spending it's second week) & "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree" by Dawn Featuring Tony Orlando (spending it's third week at # 1) back on my birthday when I turned 8 years old on May 5, 1973. The next week, it was kept from "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life" (remix with horns) by Stevie Wonder & Dawn With Tony (# 4 week at # 1) in May 12, 1973. Finally, it was kept again from # 1 by Dawn With Tony (# 2) & Stevie which hit # 1 back in May 19, 1973. The next song "Blockbuster" (Bell) went to # 73 back in July of 1973. The group signed with Capitol Records in early 1975 & the song "Ballroom Blitz" (Capitol) which debuted in the Hot 100 back in June 14, 1975 & went to # 5 back in October 18, 1975. The next song "Fox On The Run" (Capitol) which debuted in the Hot 100 back in November 15, 1975 & a gold record that went to # 5 back in January 17, 1976. The next song "Action" (Capitol) debuted on the Hot 100 back in February 14, 1976 & went to # 20 back in April of 1976. The song "Funk It Up (David's Song)" (Capitol) went to # 88 back in August of 1977. The song "Love Is Like Oxygen" (Capitol) debuted on the Hot 100 back in February 18, 1978 & went to # 8 (2 weeks) back in June 24 & July 1, 1978. The final single "California Nights" (Capitol) went to # 76 back in August of 1978. The group did NOT Bubbled Under in Billboard. On the Billboard Top 200 Album Charts, the album "The Sweet" (Bell) debuted back in July 28, 1973 & went to # 191 back in August of 1973. The company Razor & Tie reissued the CD back in February of 1998 with 5 bonus tracks & it is NO longer made. The album "Desolation Boulevard" (Capitol) & a gold record debuted back in July 26, 1975 & went to # 25 back in January of 1976. The album "Give Us A Wink" (Capitol) debuted back in March 6, 1976 & went to # 27 back in May of 1976. The album "Off The Record" (Capitol) debuted back on May 14, 1977 & went to # 151 back in June of 1977. The album "Level Headed" (Capitol) debuted back in February 18, 1978 & went to # 52 back in July of 1978. The album "Cut Above The Rest" (Capitol) debuted back in May 12, 1979 & went to # 151 back in June of 1979. The album "Sweet VI" (Capitol) from 1980 did NOT chart or Bubbled Under on Billboard. Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danmichel Posted July 22, 2005 Share Posted July 22, 2005 thanks for the info...i had forgotten how some of the other SWEET tracks had fared in BILLBOARD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Nivan Posted July 24, 2005 Share Posted July 24, 2005 Back from vacation and surfing the board.Fox on the Run is one of my absolute '70s faves.Such good taste on this board!It's Saturday night, 7/23, 8PM in Chicago, 9PM in the east.Board very sparsely attended ...Where is everybody???"K" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steveh Posted July 24, 2005 Share Posted July 24, 2005 Keith, Everyone is either in New York or wishing they were in New York.Steveh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
susana Posted July 29, 2005 Share Posted July 29, 2005 Like BlackhawkPat, I also had the pleasure of seeing Eric open for the Sweet...there was a third act that evening, too...some guy named Bob Seger who went on to have a couple of hits. But, like any died in the wool EC/Berries fan, I was bored silly by everyone but him. I wanted the Sweet to be much better than they came across that evening...I really did. It was ear splitting loud and yet I fell asleep during their set. Told that to an acquaintance of mine on the phone a week or so later and he couldn't believe it. "WHAT?! They were SO loud!" Wish I could remember the exact quote because I remember he summed up the situation so well...it really was unbelievable that I went to sleep...quite ear splitting!*susana*P.S. Ah, Steveh, I left the main part of the board to try and forget I missed all the fun last weekend...now you go and remind me again! <g> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy K. Posted July 30, 2005 Share Posted July 30, 2005 Dug out "Desolation Boulevard".....it was interesting to hear that through after all these years. Some of the songs sounded great and others sounded dated.Kind of cool of the use of synths and tubular bells in the appropriate spots.....plus there were a couple of spots on the album where they showed that they were better than most bands, and--should I say this--even capable of playing jazz.Most of you have it on CD but mine is on vinyl.The Chinn-Chapman compositions are emphasized on side one, while the band-written songs are on side two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popcorn Double Feature Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 A lot of those "cornball lyrics" in early Sweet songs were written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. Sweet's latter day music was written by the band and much stronger, in my opinion.Marvin Another big Sweet fan, here. 'Fox On The Run', 'Turn It Down' (anyone seen them do this on Germany's Beat Club? Great live) and 'Call Me' are faves - but early tracks like 'Time' (self-penned?) and 'The Juicer' are great, too...Incidentally, noticed an audience member at BB Kings had rather a cool Sweet t-shirt on in one of the gig photos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aggiesjc Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 I remember seeing that Sweet t-shirt at the shows in NY! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 Someone mentioned live SWEET. They did put out "Live At The Marquee" in 1989. It's a great CD and they covered most of the big hits plus some great guitar and drum solos. Worth checking out if you want to hear them live! Here's the tracks:ActionSweet F.A.Love Is Like OxygenRestlessNo You Don'tGuitar SegueSomeone Else WillDrum SoloSet Me FreeBallroom BlitzFox On The RunShot Down In FlamesOver My HeadJump The FenceReach Out... (I'll Be There)"Best Of Sweet" (domestic version) gives you all of the major hits except that, "Love Is Like Oxygen" is the edited for airplay version, and "Action" has the lead-in synth opening cut. A good disc for the money.By the way, since this all started with the song "Fox On The Run", if you get a chance listen to the original version from the UK release "Fanny Adams". It's very different from the US version - more rock, less pop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Cartmill Posted August 23, 2005 Share Posted August 23, 2005 8th grade lyrics... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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