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Block Buster!

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"Block Buster!"
Single by Sweet
from the album The Sweet
B-side"Need a Lot of Lovin'"
Released5 January 1973[1]
Recorded1972
Genre
Length3:13
LabelRCA
Songwriter(s)Nicky Chinn, Mike Chapman
Producer(s)Phil Wainman
Sweet singles chronology
"Wig-Wam Bam"
(1972) 		"Block Buster!"
(1973) 		"Hell Raiser"
(1973)
Video
"Blockbuster" - Top Of The Pops on YouTube

"Block Buster!" (also sometimes listed as "Blockbuster!") is a 1973 single by The 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,[8] 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.

Music and lyric

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Its Muddy Waters-inspired blues riff is markedly similar to that featured on fellow RCA act David Bowie's "The Jean Genie", released shortly before, but all parties maintained this was a coincidence.[9]

TV performances

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Some controversy arose after the band's performance of the song on the British television program Top of the Pops on 25 December 1973, for which bassist Steve Priest wore a swastika arm band.[10]

Charts

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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[11] 1
United States[12] 73

In the case of Belgium, there are two types of lists. The one for the Flemish speaking part of Belgium (Flanders) saw the song reach number two, for five consecutive weeks,.[13] In the French speaking part (Wallonia) the song climbed to number one, for two consecutive weeks.[14]

References

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  1. ^ "Promo disc with release date". Discogs.
  2. ^ Popoff, Martin (2014). The Big Book of Hair Metal: The Illustrated Oral History of Heavy Metal?s Debauched Decade. Voyageur Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-62788-375-7.
  3. ^ Swanson, Dave (10 May 2014). "10 Underrated Glam Rock Stompers Worth Getting All Dolled Up For". Diffuser.fm. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  4. ^ Chapman, Ian (2015). Experiencing David Bowie: A Listener's Companion. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 72. ISBN 978-1-44223-752-0.
  5. ^ Wroe, Nicholas (12 September 2014). "That's neat: Chinnichap's blitz of 70s hits become a musical". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  6. ^ Sandford, Christopher (1996). Bowie: Loving The Alien. Da Capo Press. pp. 400–103. ISBN 978-0306808548.
  7. ^ Stanley, Bob (13 September 2013). "Deluxe and Delightful: Glam". Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop. Faber & Faber. p. 338. ISBN 978-0-571-28198-5.
  8. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. pp. 282–3. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  9. ^ Nicholas Pegg (2000). The Complete David Bowie: p.110
  10. ^ "Steve Priest | The Sweet". Thesweetband.com. Archived from the original on 7 August 2020. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  11. ^ "UK Official Charts". Official Charts Company. 2019. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  12. ^ "Hot 100: The Sweet". Billboard. 2019. Archived from the original on 26 January 2019. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  13. ^ "The Sweet - Block Buster - Vlaanderen". ultratop.be.
  14. ^ "The Sweet - Block Buster - Wallonie". ultratop.be.
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