The Sweet - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1972-1974

I originally posted just one album of all the BBC sessions from the British glam band the Sweet. However, in May 2025, I found some more songs, enough to split that one album into two. This is the second volume. 

There are lots of changes and improvements to the first volume. Not only are there new songs, but I found better versions of most of the songs. So if you'll want this one, you should want that one too. Here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-sweet-bbc-sessions-1969-1974.html

Volume 1 thoroughly covers the best songs from the time period of that album (1969 to 1971). Volume 2 is more problematic. Most of the songs here come from the Top of the Pops radio show (although some were first broadcast on other BBC shows and then rebroadcast on Top of the Pops, with the Top of the Pops broadcasts being the ones that survived). But around 1972, many acts stopped performing live in the studio for that show or other shows, and the BBC simply played the album versions instead.

That's what happened with this band. In fact, I found one case where two of their songs were broadcast on the same date, and one of them was done live in the studio and the other one was just the record version. That's probably because that song had sound effects that couldn't be done as effectively live. But in any case, the usable BBC sessions run out at the end of 1972, while the band actually had many big hits after that. 

For instance, nowadays, it seems this band is mainly remembered for two big hits: "Ballroom Blitz" and "Fox on the Run." (Those two have ten times more views than any other Sweet songs on Spotify.) Unfortunately, neither of them are here. They were such big hits that they were performed on the British TV show "Top of the Pops" (different from the radio show of the same name), but like most performances on that show, they were lip-synced. I also couldn't find six other songs that made the Top Five in Britain. But some songs are better than none.

I tried to fill in the missing songs with other versions performed on British TV shows. Unfortunately, usually when the band was shown on TV, they merely lip-synced. I found a few other performances from British TV shows that weren't lip-synced, though. "Teenage Rampage" is from a show called "Crackerjack." Tracks 21 and 22 are from the show "45." Tracks 23 and 24 are from the show "The Geordie Show." 

In 2017, a box set was released called "Sensational Sweet." That included most of their BBC recordings. However, when the BBC DJ talked over the beginnings and/or ends of the songs, those parts of the songs were simply cut out. So I usually had to resort to using unreleased versions. I used the UVR5 program to wipe the DJ talking while keeping the music. Those are usually marked with "[Edit]" in their titles. Only two of the songs here are officially released and unchanged (tracks 5 and 7). Also, "The Six Teens" is from a TV show, but the emcee talked over the beginning of it, so I removed the talking for that one too too.

This album is 41 minutes long. 

01 Chop Chop [Edit] (Sweet)
02 Poppa Joe [Edit] (Sweet)
03 Little Willie (Sweet)
04 Man from Mecca (Sweet)
05 Lucille - Great Balls of Fire (Sweet)
06 Wig Wam Bam [Edit] (Sweet)
07 Need a Lot of Lovin' (Sweet)
08 Teenage Rampage (Sweet)
09 You're Not Wrong for Loving Me - Lady Starlight (Sweet)
10 The Six Teens [Edit] (Sweet)
11 Solid Gold Brass (Sweet)
12 Turn It Down (Sweet)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/DxJ3376z 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/2MveUwDqEhNdbaf/file

The cover photo was taken from a TV appearance in September 1972. But I don't know the details. The band's drummer didn't make the picture.