The Siren’s Call: Remembering the Glittering, Deafening Ascent of Pop’s Heaviest Hitters
An adrenaline shot of pure, unadulterated Glam Rock, “Block Buster!” is a high-octane siren’s warning and a celebration of youthful, irresistible chaos.
For those of us who remember the winter of 1973—a time perhaps best recalled through the grainy, flickering lens of a televised Top of the Pops—the opening wail of “Block Buster!” by The Sweet remains an immediate, visceral trigger. It’s the sound of the world suddenly switching from drab olive green to a blinding, sequined fuchsia. Released in January 1973, this single didn’t just climb the charts; it detonated them, becoming the band’s sole UK No. 1 hit and holding the top spot on the UK Singles Chart for a triumphant five weeks. Its success was global, too, seizing the No. 1 position in key European territories like Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and Ireland, alongside a chart-topping run in New Zealand. While it only peaked at No. 73 on the American Billboard Hot 100, a notorious difficulty for British glam acts, its transatlantic influence was undeniable. The sheer ubiquity of the song that winter sealed The Sweet‘s reputation as masters of the glam-stomp singles, a formidable machine built on the perfect pop-rock hybrid.
The song’s story is inextricably linked to the potent and prolific songwriting duo of Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, who penned this glittering anthem. It was a time of creative synchronicity, but also one of remarkable, almost unbelievable, coincidence. The central, driving, slightly gritty guitar riff in “Block Buster!” is strikingly similar to David Bowie’s smash hit, “The Jean Genie,” which had been released shortly before. The story goes that Chinn and Chapman had independently—and almost simultaneously—landed on a riff that traces its roots all the way back to the classic Bo Diddley rhythm, specifically his 1955 track “I’m a Man,” which in turn took influence from Muddy Waters’ “Hoochie Coochie Man.” The Sweet’s guitarist, Andy Scott, was reportedly horrified when played Bowie’s record just before their own release, but all parties ultimately maintained that the parallel was a genuine accident of the zeitgeist—a shared dive into the well of rock and roll history.
Lyrically, “Block Buster!” is less about deep poetry and more about pure, playful menace. It’s a cartoonish, yet captivating, tale of a mysterious rogue named “Buster” who is a charming, long-haired villain (“better watch out if you’ve got long black hair”) capable of “stealing your woman out from under your nose.” The repeated, anxious refrain, “Does anybody know the way to Block Buster?” is an intentionally nonsensical plea for help in catching this elusive anti-hero. Its meaning lies not in a profound narrative, but in its delivery—the shouted vocals of Brian Connolly, the dramatic uh-huh response from bassist Steve Priest, and the soaring, impossibly high backing harmonies that were the signature sound of The Sweet. It’s the perfect, high-camp articulation of teen rebellion and the thrilling, chaotic energy of the early seventies, a time when a touch of glitter and a pair of platform boots were enough to feel like you were tearing down the establishment.
The production by Phil Wainman is as much a star as the band itself. That infamous, ear-catching opening siren—a calculated move by Chinn to grab the listener’s attention immediately—was a masterstroke of pop engineering. It leads into a powerful, percussive track built on a classic, almost primal rock and roll beat, which allowed the band to showcase their chops, despite their reputation at the time as a purely ‘manufactured’ singles band. This tension between their saccharine pop image (complete with outrageous costuming, like Steve Priest’s notorious Nazi uniform for a Top of the Pops performance) and their hard-rock musicianship is what makes The Sweet so compelling to look back on. “Block Buster!” is the ultimate expression of that contradiction: a bubblegum hook wrapped around a hard rock core, an invitation to a dazzling, high-volume party that, for a few glorious weeks, no one in the UK could possibly resist. It was a sound that captured the very essence of Glam Rock, before the volume was turned down and the glitter began to fade. It’s more than a hit; it’s a brilliant, noisy snapshot of a bygone era.