Sweet Things (Georgie Fame album)

Sweet Things album cover
"Last Night"
Sample of "Last Night", written by Bob Laine
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Sweet Things is the 1966 third album with the Blue Flames by Georgie Fame which reached No.6 in the album Top Ten in the UK.[1] Following this album his band The Blue Flames was replaced with The Tornados.[2][3][4]

The album, issued on the Columbia label (SX 6043), has been described as "one of the finest British R&B albums of the mid-'60s."

Style and content

Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Dave Thompson says that it ".. follows in the footsteps of its predecessors, a punchy R&B stomper that could (even should) have been recorded live, so high is the energy, and so abandoned the backing of the Blue Flames." He continues:

This is especially apparent on side two of the original vinyl, as the band all-but replicate the closing run of a hot and sweaty club gig, pounding through an electrifyingly note-perfect "My Girl," a rattling "The Whole World's Shaking" and a truly incredible version of "The In Crowd," all honking horns and smooth-flowing Hammond. Don Covay's "See Saw" is another jewel, but for sheer audacity, the highlight has to be calypso king Lord Kitchener's gleefully risqué "Dr Kitch," a percussively swaying romp that only grows more delightful as it becomes apparent that Fame himself is having trouble delivering the lyric straight-faced -- the story of a doctor attempting to administer an injection to a nervous young lady, after all, is so rife with double meaning that it is virtually a sex act in its own right.

Not quite up to the standard of the group's debut (which, of course, was recorded live), Sweet Thing is nevertheless one of the finest British R&B albums of the mid-'60s, and one of the last to illustrate just how many possibilities were still open to the U.K. scene at that time. The journey from soft soul to rude calypso, via every musical shade in between, was not one that many performers were willing to take, after all. Fame and co, on the other hand, make the journey in record time.[5]

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Sweet Thing" (William "Mickey" Stevenson)2:35
2."See Saw" (Don Covay)2:46
3."Ride Your Pony" (Naomi Neville)2:42
4."Funny How Time Slips Away" (Willie Nelson)3:17
5."Sitting In The Park" (Billy Stewart)3:26
6."Dr. Kitch" (Chris Blackwell, Lord Kitchener)4:00
Side two
No.TitleLength
7."My Girl" (Ronald White, Smokey Robinson)2:58
8."Music Talk" (Clarence Paul, Stevie Wonder, Ted Hull)3:22
9."The In Crowd" (Billy Page)2:59
10."The World Is Round" (Rufus Thomas)2:41
11."The Whole World's Shaking" (Sam Cooke)3:12
12."Last Night" (Bob Laine)5:07

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ Rock Stars Encyclopedia - Page 362 0789446138 Dafydd Rees, Luke Crampton - 1999 - GEORGIE FAME &THE BLUE FLAMES 1966 May Sweet Things hits UK #6.
  2. ↑ John Tobler (1991), Who's Who in Rock & Roll, 0517056879, p. 1988: "His third album with the Blue Flames, 'Sweet Things', lingered in the chart, but the band was dismissed so that Fame ..."
  3. ↑ The International Who's Who in Popular Music 2002 1857431618- Page 163 The Blue Flames, 1961; Band replaced with the Tornados: London residencies, Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, ... 1, UK), 1966; Sweet Things, 1966; Sunny, 1966; Sitting In The Park, 1967; Because I Love You (own composition), 1967; The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde
  4. ↑ Bob Brunning - Blues: The British Connection -1986 Page 75 "Georgie's soul music side was ably reflected on his next album Sweet Things in early 1966."
  5. ↑ Dave Thompson. "Sweet Things - Georgie Fame". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
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