The Rubettes – Sugar Baby Love

“Sugar Baby Love” – Single by The Rubettes from the album Wear It’s ‘At
B-side “You Could Have Told Me”
Released: January 1974. Recorded: 1973

In 1974 Wayne Bickerton, the then head of A&R at Polydor, and his songwriting partner Tony Waddington hired session men to play a song they’d written, “Sugar Baby Love.

” Bickerton recalls in 1000 UK #1 Hits, “We had Paul DaVinci singing in that incredibly high falsetto voice and then a vocal group sings ‘Bop-shu-waddy’ over and over for about 3 minutes. Gerry Shury, who did the string arrangements, said, ‘This is not going to work: you can’t have a vocal group singing ‘Bop-shu-waddy’ non stop.’ A lot of people said the same thing to us and the more determined I became to release it.

The record was dormant for six or seven weeks and then we got a break on Top Of The Pops and it took off like a rocket and sold 6 million copies worldwide. Gerry said to me, ‘I’m keeping my mouth shut and will concentrate on conducting the strings.'”

Rubettes guitarist Tony J Thorpe recalls in the same book, “We were very lucky to get on Top Of The Pops. We were only at number 51, but the work permits for Sparks fell through at the last minute and we got on in their place.”

“Sugar Baby Love” became a UK No. 1 hit in 1974, also reaching No. 37 and No. 30 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and Cashbox charts, respectively. It also reached No. 1 in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria and Belgium, and No. 2 in Australia, South Africa and Italy.

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The Rubettes - Sugar Baby Love

The Rubettes - Sugar Baby Love03:31

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