Posted May 9, 200718 yr Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn teamed up to form a songwriting partnership while the former was a member of the group Tangerine Peel and the latter a garage owner. With the encouragement of the Rak label boss, Mickie Most, they were later to compose a string of hits in the early '70s for such acts as New World, Sweet, Gary Glitter, Mud, Suzi Quatro and Smokie. The duo became one of the most successful songwriting teams of the era and obtained a reputation in the UK that was only to be matched in the '80s by the team of Stock, Aitken And Waterman. Mike Chapman emerged as an influential force in moulding Blondie for the pop market, providing production credit on such hits as Heart Of Glass, The Tide Is High, Sunday Girl, Atomic and Rapture. Chinn and Chapman inaugurated the Dreamland label in 1979 which folded two years later. Chapman later worked with Pat Benatar, Exile (Kiss You All Over, a US number 1—a Chinn/Chapman composition), Nick Gilder(Hot Child In The City, a US number 1), the Knack (My Sharona a US number 1), Patti Smith and Lita Ford. During this time the duo's songwriting skills later earned them a US number 1 in 1982 with Mickey for Toni Basil. Songs produced, or written and produced, by Chinn and Chapman which charted in the UK: 1971: New World: Tom Tom Turnaround The Sweet: Funny Funny, Co-Co, Alexander Graham Bell 1972: The Sweet: Poppa Joe, Little Willy, Wig-Wam Bam 1973: Mud: Crazy, Hypnosis, Dyna-Mite Suzi Quatro: Can the Can, 48 Crash, Daytona Demon The Sweet: Block Buster, Hell Raiser, Ballroom Blitz 1974: The Arrows: Touch too Much Mud: Tiger Feet, The Cat Crept In, Rocket, Lonely This Christmas Suzi Quatro: Devil Gate Drive, Too Big, The Wild One The Sweet: Teenage Rampage, The Six Teens 1975: Mud: The Secrets That You Keep, Moonshine Sally Suzi Quatro: Your Mama Won’t Like Me Smokie: If You Think You Know How to Love Me, Don’t Play Your Rock ‘N Roll To Me 1976: Smokie: Something's Been Making Me Blue, I'll Meet You At Midnight, Living Next Door To Alice 1977: Suzi Quatro: Tear Me Apart Smokie: Lay Back In The Arms Of Someone, It's Your Life, Needles and Pins 1978: Suzi Quatro: If You Can’t Give Me Love, Stumblin’ In (with Chris Norman) Racey: Lay Your Love On Me Smokie: For A Few Dollars More, Oh Carol 1979: Suzi Quatro: She’s In Love With You Racey: Some Girls They certainly contributed to bubblegum pop in the early 70's.
May 10, 200718 yr I loved all that stuff as a youngster, especially The Sweet, but yes...very much the S/A/W of the 70s.
May 11, 200718 yr There was a article on how they wrote songs and they used to come up with the filthiest toilet humour as lyrics, record it, then clean it up and turn it into popsongs. For example Ballroom Blitz was demoed as Bathroom S***s and Dirty Big T**s. Makes you love them even more. Doesn't it???
May 17, 200718 yr not really.... they were light weight, a 70's pete waterman, however this on the other hand could never be seen as light-weight :lol: http://www.jerrysrecordexchange.com/divine.jpg IiIJOB0GLW4 http://www.thetheatreaddict.com/images/travolta_hairspray.jpg
June 1, 200718 yr There is no way that the Chinn & Chapman Hits can be compared to the SAW Hits. For a start, the Chinn/Chapman Hits, may well have been 'Pop', but the sound was heavier than on any SAW Hit. Also, their Hits were far bigger in Europe than the SAW Hits. The Sweet especially were huge in Europe. They had 8 German Number 1 Singles, as well as being Big in Austria, & Holland, etc.. I call The Sweet Hits, 'Heavy Pop' - and no one can call the SAW Hits that. The Sweet had German Number 1 Hits, 36 Weeks at Number 1, & 187 Weeks in the German Top 10. This was beaten by only 3 other Acts - The Beatles, (302 Top 10 Weeks), Freddy Quinn, (275), & ABBA, (239). They also had 4 USA Top 10 Singles, as well as Hits all over the rest of Europe, Australia, & New Zealand. Suzi Quatro, & Mud, were big in Europe too, as were Smokie. SAW simply did not have that kind of Global success - the UK was their main Market, with only Kylie Minogue & Rick Astley, giving them several Hits outside the UK. The Chinn/Chapman Singles were a lot heavier than what SAW coming up with. Try listening to, 'Touch Too Much', by Arrows, sometime - and comparing it to the SAW Hits, by Sonia! To compare the 2 is like comparing Englebert Humpadinck to Elvis Presley..... Edited June 1, 200718 yr by zeus555
June 1, 200718 yr But does 'heavier' mean better?? Roadblock by SAW is a pop/funk classic. You Spin My Round... is one of the most significant songs of the last 40 years. Rick Astley had a US #1, Kylie a US top 3 and Venus by Bananarama was #1 worldwide. HiNRG was THE popular music in Japan in the 80s ( In Kylie's Japanese CDs you got PWL stickers. That's how big the music was there :) ) Oh and there's more PWL collectors out there than Chinn Chapman collectors. Think about it :lol:
June 1, 200718 yr Hello, I never said that Chinn/Chapman Hits were 'better' than SAW hits - only that they were, (over all), bigger in Europe, than SAW Hits. I like Kylie, but she has only had 2 USA Top 10 Hits - The Sweet had 4. Even Suzi Quatro had a USA Top 10 Hit, (with Chris Norman of Smokie), & she was never even big in the USA. SAW Hits certainly did not dominate the Charts of many Western European Countries, as much as Chinn/Chapman Hits did. To see their comparative German Chart success:, http://www.charts-surfer.de/musikcharts1024e.htm And, if anyone wants to call Chinn/Chapman Hits, 'nursery rhyme pop', then that is fine - but they used a lot heavier beat, & sound, on them than SAW ever did on their Hits. No SAW Act had as much success in Continental Europe as The Sweet did. Edited June 1, 200718 yr by zeus555
June 1, 200718 yr Didn't The Sweet split with Chinn/ Chapman about the time of the Sweet Fanny Adams album?? I remember them moaning and groaning about production credits and the Strung Out album was supposed to show they weren't puppets, despite the title and the cover.
June 1, 200718 yr Yes, Sweet left Chinn & Chapman by 1975. They only had 2 huge Global Singles after that - 'Fox On The Run', & 'Action'. Both sounded like Chinn & Chapman Songs. I like both, as they were as strong as anything that they did with Chinn & Chapman. However, after that, they were never really huge again, until they returned to the UK, USA, & German, Top 10's once more, in 1978, with 'Love Is Like Oxygen'. It was not really in the style of their earlier huge Hits, & I personally was not keen on it. It was their last major International Hit. Edited June 1, 200718 yr by zeus555
June 2, 200718 yr They were huge in Australia. Peppermint Twist was a top 5 single without being released anywhere else in the world. Plus we had an exclusive album 'The Sweet Singles Album' which made the 'Strung Out' album a total rip off as it contained half the same tracks. :lol:
June 2, 200718 yr There is no way that the Chinn & Chapman Hits can be compared to the SAW Hits. For a start, the Chinn/Chapman Hits, may well have been 'Pop', but the sound was heavier than on any SAW Hit. Also, their Hits were far bigger in Europe than the SAW Hits. The Sweet especially were huge in Europe. They had 8 German Number 1 Singles, as well as being Big in Austria, & Holland, etc.. I call The Sweet Hits, 'Heavy Pop' - and no one can call the SAW Hits that. The Sweet had German Number 1 Hits, 36 Weeks at Number 1, & 187 Weeks in the German Top 10. This was beaten by only 3 other Acts - The Beatles, (302 Top 10 Weeks), Freddy Quinn, (275), & ABBA, (239). They also had 4 USA Top 10 Singles, as well as Hits all over the rest of Europe, Australia, & New Zealand. Suzi Quatro, & Mud, were big in Europe too, as were Smokie. SAW simply did not have that kind of Global success - the UK was their main Market, with only Kylie Minogue & Rick Astley, giving them several Hits outside the UK. The Chinn/Chapman Singles were a lot heavier than what SAW coming up with. Try listening to, 'Touch Too Much', by Arrows, sometime - and comparing it to the SAW Hits, by Sonia! To compare the 2 is like comparing Englebert Humpadinck to Elvis Presley..... i dissagree. i dont like waterman for one second, but neither do i like (in general) chin/chapman. most of their material was just lightweight pop... so what if many artists turned up the volume?.. ok sweet were their best group and i wouldnt argue that sweet were on a par with SAW, they werent. but chinny chap was just another pop production line, an art watertwat fine tuned . tbh i dont care what the global impact ws of either outfits, im uk based and listen (now and then) to the uk music scene. as far as im concerned neither stables can be compared to the truely great pop composers both before and after them. SAW catered for the style of music in the late 80's the same way ch ch did in the early 70's... in the early 70's 'rock' was the main style of music... so pop would be louder. dont forget that this was pre-disco, pre dance era, SAW tracks were 'dance' orientated pop, pop you could dance too.
June 2, 200718 yr Hello, Well, Sweet had 13 Million Selling Singles Globally - there is not a UK Act Chart around today who have sold a Global Million with 13 different Singles. There is Madonna, but she is a USA Act, as is Mariah Carey. Plus, Celine Dion, who is Canadian. Nor did I say that Chinn & Chapman - or SAW - were better than the greatest Pop Composers. I am an ABBA Fan, & most 'modern' Acts have not outsold ABBA - and Benny & Bjorn did write their own material - as well as Produce it. All I am saying is that I like, (over all), Chinn & Chapman Hits more than I like SAW Hits. Most SAW Hits had a very similar beat. You can't compare Sweet to SAW anyhow - Sweet were a performing Act, & SAW were a Writing & Production Trio - it is like comparing a Mouse to a Tiger. However, there is no way that, most Sweet Hits were, 'Light Weight Pop' - Steps Singles were 'Light Weight Pop'. Sweet did, 'Teenage Rampage', ''Ball Room Blitz', 'Hell Raiser', & 'Fox On The Run'. Try playing them next to Steps Singles - the Sweet Singles, are by far the heavier in sound! It is just silly to go on as if both types of Hits, come under the heading of, 'Light Weight Pop'. (And I LIKE 'Light Weight Pop' - including Steps). Try comparing, 'The Six Teens', by Sweet, to 'Teenage Rampage', by the same Group. They are far, far more different to each other, than, 'I Should Be So Lucky', & 'Got To Be Certain', by Kylie - both of which sounded very similar. And I like Kylie too. Edited June 2, 200718 yr by zeus555
June 2, 200718 yr well not really m8... id take sweet out of the equasion tbh, im not knocking them, but chinny chap. the simularity is that they were both 'hit factories' of their time. if SAW had been around in the early 70's they would have produced a heavier rockier sound as that was the fashion then.... and vice versa with chinn/chap. i too rate ch/ch higher then SAW, but they are all lightweight pop. ok, some of ch/ch material was louder and heavier, but it was still 'good time nonsense'.. their songs like SAW are utterly meaningless 'nursery rhyme' pop... unlike (as you say) the real composer geniuses that were benny/bjorn... id add the smiths, mccartney/lennon, jagger/richards, ray davies and probably 10cc members to this equasion too.
June 2, 200718 yr But does 'heavier' mean better?? Roadblock by SAW is a pop/funk classic. I think that was funny how it said on the TV that SAW did that record and it pissed off all the pretentious Acid Jazz heads in Soho who thought they had got their hands on an ultra rare funk vinyl from the 1970s. :lol: You Spin My Round... is one of the most significant songs of the last 40 years. yeah i read that too? was it Rolling Stone for their anniversiry? i dissagree. i dont like waterman for one second, but neither do i like (in general) chin/chapman. most of their material was just lightweight pop... so what if many artists turned up the volume?.. ok sweet were their best group and i wouldnt argue that sweet were on a par with SAW, they werent. but chinny chap was just another pop production line, an art watertwat fine tuned . maybe if your talking about pop production lines i think whether it be the corporation, Jam and Lewis, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Stargate, Xenomania or Chin/Chapmen and SAW they should all be viewed as the same thing whether their pop has come from and R&B/Funk background or a HiNRG Dance/disco background. Even though her new album is written by a lot of the usual suspects* i agree with Beverley Knight with her opinion that most of todays R&B is just production line and out for the dollars. I would go as far as listing Mosley and Hills in this group as well, seeing as American R&B now is the de facto pop of today. * ref: Amanda Ghost interview in this weeks MW.
Create an account or sign in to comment