When I started this mini-series of sweet songs I didn’t realise how many I would find! This is now my third week and I still have many more, so what I’m planning to do is honour my promise to American readers to play some candy songs next week and then maybe, if I haven’t exhausted you, me or this theme by then, to return for a final one to mop up the rest. OK by you? I’m sorry if it isn’t, but I’m in charge here. I think 🤣

Having said that I’d better play some music, hadn’t I? How about this to get us started:

Sweet Talkin’ Woman was first released as a track on the ELO’s seventh album, Out Of The Blue in October 1977. This was a double record, but despite the additional price tag it has sold more than ten million copies worldwide, and has gone Platinum in both the UK and the US. It charted at peaks of #4 in both the UK and the US, and reached #2 in Canada, and #3 in Australia and The Netherlands. The song was later released as a single, in February 1978 in the US and September 1978 in the UK, reaching #6 in the UK and #17 in the US. Its original title was “Dead End Street”, but it was changed during recording. Some words that survived from that version can be heard in the opening of the third verse, “I’ve been livin’ on a dead end street.” Proving the ongoing popularity of the band, this live performance of the song at Glastonbury in 2016 was probably played to an audience of whom many (most?) weren’t born when the record first came out! The two featured players are the Langley sisters: Amy on cello and Rosie on violin, in case you were wondering.

It’s always good to get going with a belter of a song, and here’s another, from way back when:

Sweets For My Sweet was the debut single by The Searchers, released in June 1963, and it topped the UK Singles Chart for two weeks that August. It wasn’t released in the US until the following year, but wasn’t a hit there. The band had formed in Liverpool in 1959, and were part of the Merseybeat scene that dominated pop music here for a while, and also became part of the ‘British Invasion’ of the US Charts, along with many other bands of their day. Rather ironically, given that background, the song is actually a cover of one originally released in 1961 by The Drifters, and written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. Over here, this version was inescapable: I can remember spending a day at the seaside with my cousin and her family at the time this was in the charts, and it seemed that everywhere we went there was a transistor radio blasting it out! Happy times, and a seemingly more innocent era. Then again, I was just coming up to my tenth birthday so was a bit limited in my outlook!

Coming much more up to date with this next one:

Nathan Evans included Sweet Mountain Rose on 1994, his second album, which came out in November 2024 and reached #1 in his native Scotland and #26 in the UK as a whole, though it made #2 on the UK Folk Albums chart. This song was later released as a single but didn’t make the charts. Nathan came to fame in 2022 with his version of the sea shanty Wellerman, and I’ve loved everything he has done. He now has three albums under his belt and all are well worth a listen, if you like that kind of thing.

A rock classic for you now:

Sweet Thing was a track on Van Morrison’s iconic album Astral Weeks, which was released in November 1968 and has gone on to achieve cult status without ever making a big chart impression. It has never been in the US charts, and finally made a showing here in the UK at #55 in 2015. But it has sold well: 500,000 in the US (Gold) and 300,000 in the UK (Platinum). This track was recorded during the last session for the album, in October 1968, and Van has described it as ‘ a romantic song. It contemplates gardens and things like that…wet with rain. It’s a romantic love ballad not about anybody in particular but about a feeling.” That unofficial video I found for it is true to his sense of what he was writing, and I think it is still a beautiful song, one that I have always loved.

I’m closing today with a song that first appeared on the Motown label, notably by Marvin Gaye and Junior Walker. I know I should go for one of theirs but, although I just played this guy two weeks ago, I really like his version of this, so that’s what I’m going with. Sorry, Pete:

James Taylor released his version of How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You) on his sixth album, Gorilla, in May 1975. The album peaked at #6 in the US, #2 in Canada and #60 in Australia, but didn’t make the UK charts. The song was released as a single the following month and reached #1 in Canada and #5 in the US, but again wasn’t a UK hit. The version I am playing is from a live DVD, Pull Over, which was released in November 2002. Above all, I chose this one for the sheer joy of James and the band, together with the audience, who all seemed to be having so much fun with this. And if music can’t be fun there’s no hope, is there?

That’s the end of today’s set but as always before I depart I’d like to remind you of where I’ll be sharing this: at Esme’s Senior Salon Pit Stop and at Cathy’s Monday’s Music Moves Me. I recommend both to you.

I’ll see you again in a few days with a seasonal offering, and until then I hope you manage to avoid the aftermath of the recent storms. Take care 🤗