Having made their LP debut with half an album's worth of repackaged oldies,
the Sweet then followed through with an entire disc of the things, drawing from both their own recent back catalog and that of songwriters
Nicky Chinn and
Mike Chapman, to create a record of almost unholy
pop pleasure. For
the Sweet were not the only arrow in the
Chinn and
Chapman quiver. They were scoring hits, too, with
New World, with their
"Tom Tom Turnaround" ranking among the most mawkishly compulsive songs in the duo's entire catalog. Passing it on to
the Sweet to cover for their own LP didn't simply make sense from a commercial point of view. It was also the first step toward establishing
Chinnichap as a songwriting brand name that would ultimately become as self-sufficient as any
Motown,
Brill, or
Kasenetz-Katz coupling. Two recent
Sweet singles,
"Funny Funny" and
"Co Co," and three B-sides,
"Jeanie," "Spotlight," and
"Done Me Wrong Alright," do weight this supremely punningly titled set down a little -- add
"Tom Tom Turnaround" and the average fan would probably have owned a full half of the record before even picking it up. It should also be acknowledged that the remainder of the record was in no way comparable with the quality of those other songs. A lackluster rendering of
"Daydream" and the unappetizing American
soft rock stylisms of
"Santa Monica Sunshine," "Reflections," "Honeysuckle Love," and
"Sunny Sleeps Late" are all little more than bland filler. However,
"Chop Chop" absolutely remedies the rest of the album's failings. Another
Chinn and
Chapman classic, it was originally recorded by singing DJ
Tony Blackburn, with members of
the Sweet themselves on backing vocals. It failed to take off, and
the Sweet add little more to it than
Blackburn had already tried to. But, in the company of those other hits, its original failure seems incredible -- as incredible, in fact, as
the Sweet's own success. ~ Dave Thompson
![Greatest Hits [Rhino]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0081227219024_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Greatest Hits [Rhino]")
