In the early seventies, I noticed a single that my sister had. It was on Bell Records, a band called The Sweet, and the song was Little Willy. The more I heard their hits, the more I couldn’t believe it was the same band. This song is explosive, yes, but it’s also tight, controlled chaos.
It kicks off like a scene from a glam rock horror movie. “Are you ready, Steve?” Andy Scott answers, “Uh-huh,” and one by one, they check in like a gang about to knock over a ballroom. Then BOOM, you’re punched with that guitar riff, drums, and the Sweet launch into one of the most over-the-top rock singles ever recorded.
This song was inspired by a real onstage attack. The Sweet were playing at the Grand Hall in Kilmarnock, Scotland, when the crowd went into an almost riot and started hurling bottles at the band. Most acts might’ve run for cover or written a moody ballad. The Sweet? They wrote a glam rock anthem with more drama than a Saturday night punch-up at a neighborhood pub.
This band seemed to sound like a different band on many of their singles. They were rock, glam rock, pop, some disco, and bubblegum rock. This song has been covered by several different artists. I first heard the song by Krokus in the 1980s. The song peaked at #5 in the Billboard 100 and #2 in the UK in 1973. Their other well-known songs were Little Willy, Fox on the Run, and Love is Like Oxygen.
This was written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, who wrote many glam songs. They also wrote Sweet’s Blockbuster, Suzi Quatro’s Devil Gate Drive, and Tony Basil’s Mickey.
The Ballroom Blitz
Are you ready, Steve? Uh-ha!
Andy? Yeah!
Mick? Okay.
All right, fellows, let’s go!Oh, it’s been getting so hard
Livin’ with the things you do to me, ah-ha
My dreams are getting so strange
I’d like to tell you everything I see, mmOh, I see a man at the back as a matter of fact
His eyes are red as the sun
And a girl in the corner, let no one ignore her
‘Cause she thinks she’s the passionate one
Oh yeah, it was like lightning
Everybody was frightening
And the music was soothing
And they all started grooving
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
And the man at the back said: “Everyone attack”
And it turned into a ballroom blitz
And the girl in the corner said: “Boy, I wanna warn ya”
It’ll turn into a ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz
Oh, I’m reaching out for something
Touching nothing’s all I ever do
Oh, I softly call you over
When you appear, there’s nothing left of you, ah-ha
Now the man at the back is ready to crack
As he raises his hands to the sky
And the girl in the corner is everyone’s mourner
She could kill you with a wink of her eye
Oh yeah, it was electric
So frantically hectic
And the band started leaving
‘Cause they all stopped breathing
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
And the man at the back said: “Everyone attack”
And it turned into a ballroom blitz
And the girl in the corner said: “Boy, I wanna warn ya”
It’ll turn into a ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz
Oh yeah, it was like lightning
Everybody was frightening
And the music was soothing
‘Cause they all started grooving
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
And the man at the back said: “Everyone attack”
And it turned into a ballroom blitz
And the girl in the corner said: “Boy, I wanna warn ya”
It’ll turn into a ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz
It’s, it’s a ballroom blitz
It’s, it’s a ballroom blitz
It’s, it’s a ballroom blitz
Yeah, it’s a ballroom blitz
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This is such a fun song, Max. Their show at the Grand Hall in Kilmarnock went completely south as the audience spat and screamed at them, drowning out their music, but when they started throwing bottles, the band had no choice but to stop halfway through their set and flee back home to London. The crowd was probably not ready for a Glam band (gender-bending music with big hair and wild wardrobes).
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Yea it must have turned really bad but at least they got an iconic song out of it.
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Let’s try this again lol. Great track and like yourself Ballroom Blitz I first heard off of Krokus The Blitz album. If you look at the liner notes they recorded there version live in the studio at Little Mountain Sound back in 84.
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LOL… yea me to man…Krokus is the first place I heard this as well along with Midnight Maniac. My cousin Mark worked with the drummer on that album for a long time in a wood shop around 20 years ago.
That is cool dude about that studio…I remember that producer you had talk about that place I believe.
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Oh yea….Mike Fraser!
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You got it and Jeff Klaven was the drummer on that album and the next one as well.
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Thats right…Jeff got Mark into some heavy metal bands busses like the Scorpions.
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“Ballroom Blitz” is a real glam rock classic. It’s one of only a handful of songs I know by The Sweet. The version by Krokus was new to me – pretty good, though I think I prefer the original! 🙂
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Great tune. ‘Over the top’ is a great description of it. It was one of, I’d say the first 8 or so 45s I bought as a kid, but I had to be careful because my mom hated it & was prone to getting mad if I played it loud. As you point out, they were an oddly diverse-sounding group but talented
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You know you have a real rock and roll single if your mom gets upset!
I first heard it by the band Krokus in the 1980s…so I heard it second hand but they did a good version of it.
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Love Sweet! Especially Fox on the run ❤️
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That is probably my favorite song by them.
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Great band. Sweet were more than just a Glam Rock band. Some of their b-sides were really in the heavy rock genre. Sadly, only the guitarist Andy Scott is till with us.
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I loved them Glyn. I think all of their records sounded different…they did change at times.
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Certainly remember this one. It’s funny, I was just thinking about “Fox On The Run” not long ago, and how that song just screams High School to me. It came out smack dab in the middle of my High School years. I also remember someone bringing the “Little Willy” single in to my fifth grade music class where we were allowed to play records the last 5 or 10 minutes of class.
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Fox on the Run is my favorite song by them no doubt. Little Willy I grew up with…funny thing about this one…I didn’t hear this song until the 80s with a band named Krokus…
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Kind of amazing – don’t think I’ve heard it before.
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I remember “Little Willy” when it was all over the radio – seemed like just a short step from bubblegum at the time. I just listened to it from the same show you have above and he sounds like Marc Bolan. On “The Ballroom Blitz” he sounds like Meatloaf and the song sounds like it came from Rocky Horror.
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Oh yea…I always thought Little Willy was bubblegum…but I do like some bubblegum I have to admit.
Someone else just said the very same thing about Rocky Horror!
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Always thought they must have written this after watching The Rocky Horror Show!
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Mitch…someone else said the very same thing…I can hear it now since both of you brought it up
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I love this record. As you can probably tell by my comments, I am very much interested in the lyrics of the song. I have heard this record since it originally hit the airwaves way back in, uhm, yeah, right but I have never paid the slightest bit of attention to the lyrics. It was, and is, too much fun. The intro was right on target and then the music just attacked. I still love this.
This record was on Bell. A couple of years later they signed with Capital and Capital made it sound like they were big hit makers in England. Were they?
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