Block Buster!

"Block Buster!"
Single by Sweet
from the album The Sweet
B-side "Need a Lot of Lovin'"
Released January 1973
Recorded 1972
Genre Glam rock, blues rock[1]
Length 3:13
Label RCA
Songwriter(s) Nicky Chinn, Mike Chapman
Producer(s) Phil Wainman
Sweet singles chronology
"Wig-Wam Bam"
(1972)		 "Block Buster!"
(1973)		 "Hell Raiser"
(1973)

"Wig-Wam Bam"
(1972)		 "Block Buster!"
(1973)		 "Hell Raiser"
(1973)

"Block Buster!" (also sometimes listed as "Blockbuster!") is a 1973 single by Sweet. Written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, and produced by Phil Wainman, "Block Buster!" was the band's sole UK No. 1 hit. Released in January 1973, it spent five weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart,[2] and also made #1 in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Ireland, and #3 in Finland, Switzerland, Denmark and Norway. Outside Europe it peaked at #1 in New Zealand, #29 in Australia and at #73 on the American Billboard Hot 100.

Charts

Chart (1973) Peak
position
Australia 29
Austria 1
Belgium 2
Denmark 1
Finland 3
Germany 1
Ireland 1
Italy 30
Netherlands 1
New Zealand 1
Norway 3
South Africa 7
Spain 12
Switzerland 3
United Kingdom 1
United States 73

Music and lyrics

Its Muddy Waters-inspired blues riff is markedly similar to the one featured on fellow RCA act David Bowie's "The Jean Genie", released shortly before, but all parties maintain that this was a coincidence.[3]

TV performances

Some controversy rose after the band's performance of the song on the British television program Top of the Pops at December 25, 1973. In this performance, Sweet's bassist Steve Priest wore a Nazi uniform.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Sandford, Christopher (1996). Bowie: Loving The Alien. Da Capo Press. p. 103. ISBN 978-0306808548.
  2. ↑ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. pp. 282–3. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  3. ↑ Nicholas Pegg (2000). The Complete David Bowie: p.110
  4. ↑ "Steve Priest | The Sweet". Thesweetband.com. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
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