I can’t remember what prompted this idea for a theme, but it has been kicking around in my notes for a while now, so I thought it was about time I let it out. Today’s theme is sweet, and I’m playing five tunes with sweet in their title, though none of them are anything to do with sugary confections. I should say from the outset that I have a long list for this, and even a few with candy in their title, for our American friends, but I’m saving them for another post. This one may run for a few weeks!

I’m starting with my favourite covers band, and the song that was my introduction to them all those years ago:

Sweet Child o’ Mine was, as you no doubt know, a track on Appetite For Destruction, the debut album by Guns N’ Roses, released in July 1987. It was released as a single in June 1988 and topped the US Chart, also making #6 in the UK after a re-release in 1989. The album has sold more than 18m copies in the US and 2.6m in the UK, with correspondingly huge numbers elsewhere. The single has also performed in spectacular fashion, with more than 5m sold across all formats in the US and 3m in the UK.

I am playing the First To Eleven cover as I love just about everything they do. They are from Erie, Pennsylvania, and as I said this is the first of their videos I saw, in which they hosted a street party in their home town. I love the way everyone is having so much fun in that, though I’ve still to work out how it suddenly became night time around the 4.50 mark, and Audra had a complete change of outfit! The video was posted in June 2019, a couple of weeks before she turned 18 – she is the youngest member of the band, two of whom were school students of the fourth member when he set it up. Audra joined a couple of years later, at 15, when the original vocalist left. They have been very prolific in their video releases, usually at least one a week, and are still going strong. They have been massively successful on YouTube, with 2.05m subscribers, and this is one of their most popular videos, with more than 77m views. And in any case, their musicianship is superb and deserving of attention, while I much prefer watching Audra to Axl Rose.

A change of pace and volume for this next one, which is a longtime favourite of mine:

James Taylor with Sweet Baby James. Yes, I know I played him last week, but can you blame me? This is the title track of James’ second album, which was released in February 1970, peaking at #3 in the US and Canada, #6 in the UK and #7 in Australia, going 3x Platinum in the US for 3m sales and Silver in the UK for 60,000. This was released as the first single from the album but did not chart, but is one of his best-known and most popular tunes, and James considers it his best song: he should know! The song was written for the son of his older brother Alex, who was also named James (and indeed was named after him). It was first thought up by him as he was driving through Carolina to meet his infant nephew for the first time. Sweetness abounds!

Another longstanding favourite of mine now:

That was Pentangle and Sweet Child. There are a couple of live performance videos of the song but they are only about three minutes long, so I’m going with the full album version. This means an audio-only clip, but the song is amazing and easily stands on its own merits. This was the title track of Pentangle’s second album, released in November 1968. It was a double album: the first disc was a concert recording from earlier that year at the Royal Festival Hall, and the second was a studio set. I bought this with that year’s Christmas money and loved it from the beginning. This track, with the interplay between the voices of Jacqui McShee and Bert Jansch, is magnificent, and the musicianship is, as always with Pentangle, superb. I finally managed to see the band in concert – the full original lineup – in August 2011, also at the Festival Hall. They didn’t play this one but it was still a fantastic evening. Sadly, Bert Jansch died just three months later, and we have since lost Danny Thompson, Terry Cox and John Renbourn too, leaving Jacqui as the sole survivor. They have left us some beautiful music.

Down to the Deep South of the good ol’ US of A for this one:

Lynyrd Skynyrd with Sweet Home Alabama, which was the opening track on their second album – Second Helping – which was released in April 1974 and peaked at #12 in the US, going on to achieve Double Platinum status. It also made #9 in Canada. This track was written in response to Neil Young’s songs Southern Man and Alabama, which the band felt blamed the entire Southern United States for slavery. ‘Mr. Young’ is name-checked and dissed in the lyrics. It was released as a single in June 1974 and reached #8 in the US, becoming the band’s highest-charting single. It also got to #6 in Canada and, after a re-release, it made #31 in the UK in 1976.

I’m closing today’s sweet songs with a pop classic:

I’m sure you recognised Eurythmics and Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This. It was the title track of their second album, which was released in January 1983 and reached #3 in the UK, #6 in Canada and #15 in the US. Three of its tracks were released as singles before the album came out, with fairly moderate success, but this was the fourth, following two weeks after the album, and was the one with which they hit the big time. It got to #1 in both the US and Canada, and #2 in the UK, selling more than 1.8m copies in the UK and 1m in the US. And I love the video, though I wouldn’t have wanted the job of cleaning the studio floor afterwards!

That’s all for my first set of sweet songs, though as I said at the outset there will be more, probably next week. As usual I’ll be sharing this at Esme’s Senior Salon Pit Stop and, while Cathy is away, will be going to Alana’s place for Monday’s Music Moves Me. I’m off theme for her, but it’s still music, isn’t it! I hope you drop in on both: they are worth it.

I’ll see you again in a couple of days. Until then, stay safe and well. Take care 🤗