When two become one

 Chinn + Chapman = Chinnichap

40 years ago, in January 1973, The Sweet had their one and only # 1 single with Block Buster! (Their screamer, not mine). In the charts at the same time, and on the same record label - RCA, was David Bowie's Jean Genie: which had an identical guitar riff.

'It's actually an old blues riff' Andy Scott, Sweet's guitarist, told me many years later when I interviewed him for the paper. 'Mike Chapman, our producer, used to come and see us live and at that time we would play I'm A Man  by The Yardbirds and segue into FBI by The Shadows. Mike went away and (with Nicky Chinn, above right) wrote Block Buster! and the two songs became one.'

Sleigh bells ring

Thankfully, The Sweet never released a Christmas single. I'm sure that back in the day the band's mentors, Messrs. Chinn & Chapman, would have moved Heaven and Earth so their charges could have followed the well trodden Slade, Wizzard and Mud path. However, in 1974 the intro to the group's own composition Own Up, Take A Look At Yourself (the B side of Chinnichap stomper Teenage Rampage) opens with some very evocative sleigh bells.