As above - in a time before autotune when people had to be talented. These days all you need is high cheek bones - then they wheel in autotune, ten or twelve producers, a dozen or so song writers. Plus Sweet - in line with all the other Bands of this era - could play live. Back then if you couldn't do it live you couldn't do it full stop.
The first use of auto-tuned vocals was in 1998 on Cher's song "Do You Believe". Auto-tuned vocals heralded the death of good pop music, and re-enforced the MTV standard that what people look like is more important than musical ability. Now, pop music is full of pretty people with no musical talent.
My cousin Keren introduced me to Sweet in 1973 (Blockbuster) - I was 12, she was 15. She was old enough to travel the country and watch them live in local gigs. I've always been thankful for following my cousin's advice.
I had always assumed (going back to the 70s) that those high backing vocals were recorded at low speed and then sped up. It wasn't until I watched a documentary on Sweet on DVD that I discovered that they all had incredibly good strong falsettos that could go way up into the stratosphere.
There's a great documentary about them. They worked so hard to sound perfect live (no auto tune existed), that when they were forced to lipsync they would make it obvious that they were and not enjoying it. Great rockers.
Suggestion; when looking for classic rock songs, use the LONGEST version. That will be the album version, which I think many of us heard because we were listening to FM radio. Other stations played the radio versions, which were shorter, with key sections cut out. This song will be worth reacting to again as the long version. Has a great instrumental section.
One of very favourite bands ever. So underrated and they were super talented. They really had it going on. Saw some songs recommended below. I have every album and I'm here to say anything by them is top shelf! Favourite by them is the song" Set Me Free " would love to see a reaction on it. Lex you would dig it. Brad I think you'd like the lyrics. Love you guys reactions. 🤟
That band did not use auto-tune or any gimmicks great Harmony on the vocals very talented group had lots of great songs but did not get the recognition they really deserved very underrated which is a shame with the amount of talent they had
The Sweet were my favourite band as a kid in England. Ballroom Blitz is the first record I got, it cost 50p and I think it was all I got for that birthday. So thanks for this! Yeah those vocal counterpoints are pretty rare and special these days. Even back then it was prized eg. ABBA, Fleetwood Mac, ELO, maybe 10cc or Foreigner.
"Ballroom Blitz", "Fox on The Run", "Sweet FA". Sweet was known for it's glam rock looks but they had a hard rock edge that was ahead of their time on many of their songs.
Again, the first popular song with autotune was "Believe" from Cher from 1998. Since then it is called the "Cher Effect". Love is like Oxygen is from 1978 with pure musicality.
A very popular band in the early 1970's in Germany. They had many no. 1 hits at the time and as a fan I did owned a life sized poster (you had to put it together yourself when you buy the Bravo teen-magazin every week). It was right over my bed with Alice Cooper, David Cassidy, Donny Osmond, T. Rex, Heintje (I put him up when I was 11,and never had the heart to put him down when I got older), Ricky Shane, Melanie, David Bowie, The Who, The Jackson Five, Led Zeppelin, Bay City Rollers, and Elvis.
Many songs make liberal use of metaphor in the lyrics, but rarely is a song title a direct metaphor, which is the case here. Sweet eschews subtlety as they make the case that love, much like oxygen, must be constantly regulated. One of Sweet's more serene song titles, this was Sweet's last US, UK and German Top 10 hit, as the group left the glam rock scene for the more plush atmosphere of pop-driven music. Sweet guitarist Andy Scott wrote this song and was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for the composition. It lost to "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty. In 2002, Andy Scott told the Slovakian Box Network: "We had finished with our first record company and had begun on a project for another. At that time the era of the Sex Pistols had started, and how people thought of music reached new dimensions. No one knew what was coming next. We were already a part rock, part metal band. Therefore in the area which was most touched by the changes. That is when I wrote the song 'Love is Like Oxygen,' and then the idea came along to compose it in a style which at that time was totally new, yet one that suited us. I think it worked out well. Of course the people didn't accept it so easily. I consider Level Headed to be a good album, it sold around the world." (Songfacts.com)
I played this song so much , my brother was about to get me. LOL I love it , just the sound of it and their voices and the music . Great song, no autotune, just great harmony and backup
Need to listen to the album version. They cut out a huge section of this song for this video. Someone else said it in the comments, but the best thing to do when picking out a song is pick the longest version.
This is a great song by Sweet. That Era of Rock music was so cool , a lot of songs about loving a partner to the moon. I recognize that guy on Lex's shirt .. I think he is a stand up comedian or something. 💚🎼🖤
I remember being young and visiting relatives on Prince Edward Island. One of the neighbours repeatedly blasted this song from his house and we could hear it throughout the neighbourhood. Loved it then and still love it now.
The record execs wanted bubblegum hits from these guys , which they delivered on . They were rockers at their core , and also produced some real heavy tunes for the time .
There was no auto-tune back then. In fact no computer audio software at all. Pure electronics, and it did not have the "magic" of computers. This was "real" music. 😎
Sweet, along with Queen, and probably Boston, made great rock music with harmonies. For Sweet and Queen both had three singers in different ranges so you get that three point harmony. Some of Sweet's music is heavy too, they were big into Deep Purple. Yet another great UK band from the early '70s, along with T.Rex and Slade (who could also do pop and heavy) who made it big in the UK and elsewhere, but never in the US. The US wasn't ready for glam rock meets hard rock, until KISS.
The first autotune song was a Cher number in 1998/99 There was talkbox/vocoder/the bag before then, but that's very different and primitive. "The Bag" was used by Stevie Wonder and Jeff Beck, talkbox by Peter Frampton, Roger Troutman and Richie Sambora but only really as an overt novelty effect, not throughout a record to help charlatans sing in tune. Those old gimmicks involved sticking a tube in your "cakehole" as Jeff Beck used to say, which was linked to a speaker in a bag or box. As you played guitar or keyboard, then the sound would pass up the tube and into your mount so that you can form the notes into words with great difficulty. Cher's use of autotune was also for novelty effect when it was in its infancy - nothing lacking in Cher's abilities.
No autotune until the late 90's, early 2000's. One trick back then was to slow the tape down a little. Which would lower the pitch and make it easier to hit the notes in key. Then record the vocal track. Then speed it back up to where it was and it would sound like high pitched vocals.
FYI, there was no Auto-tune when this song was made. The vocals may have been put through some sort of filter or had some kind of effect applied to them, but no auto-tune.
Brad, please do a Wikipedia search for a song in advance and find the length of the album version and then use the corresponding video on TH-cam! The album version is ALWAYS the best version!
As others have said ... No autotune! It was not even around. They are/were just that good. You should listen to more of them ... Ballroom Blitz was probably their biggest hit (I think) and definitely worth watching ... they have a video where they were dressed up - Glam Rock period ... I think it was funny.
A really great band with fantastic players and harmonies…. One of my favourite glam bands …. A whole swag of hits , this one a latter day hit….. Fever of Love, Action, Fox on the Run, Lost Angels,Stairway to the Stars, Peppermint Twist, Lies in your eyes.
This is a radio edit version. The full album version has an instrumental section in the middle with acoustic guitar, piano & electric guitar, and also an outro that throws in a little disco influence.
I secretly had this album along withb" Roxy music " hid them from my friends and bandmate's lol. They wasnt hard enough for my crowd 😎 I loved the riff. Any old geezers like me went to " Rocky Horrer picture show " in the day. Crazy stuff. 🤣🤘
This song was in my older sister's 45 collection (singles on wax) which i used to listen to when she wasn't home when I was little. I really liked this song
Omg I have not heard this song in sooo long. LOVE it!! It has a bit of everything and the vocals are so cool on top of the lyrics. Thanks guys for posting!😊
Darn, that's the short version. you really should hear the longer one sometime, it's truly a work of art. I think others have mentioned some other great hits by them but basically if you go all the way back to the late 60s or early 70s they had a song called Little Willie which was just on the radio all the time and it's a really fun and catchy song it's a great sing along. but then fast forward if you years to I think around 1974 or so and they put out this album desolation Boulevard and every song on it is fire. but the hits off that are primarily Fox On The Run, and Ballroom Blitz. fast forward again for a few years into the late seventies when Disco was popular and the music was starting to evolve closer towards '80s music but still that classic '70s rock and also you have to understand they were kind of a parody of a Glam band they were basically hard rockers but it was popular in the early '70s with David Bowie and others to kind of go in that direction so they would wear glittery stuff and act it out sometimes but you can tell it was mostly just for fun to have fun with the audience. but anyway in the late seventies they put out this song, Love Is Like Oxygen. and once again they had a huge hit because they evolved with the changing music scene and knew how to bring it. those guys are incredible. it would be fantastic to cover some of these other hits and I guarantee you people would tune in.
Those voices are natural......this is original '70s "Glam Rock"....at least one style of! In the full version, there's a whole trippy instrumental segment that's several minutes long.
No autotune back then. All talent and this band was so under rated.
you think that's live 🤣🤣🤣
Sweet is such an incredible and underrated band from the '70s.
Also, the long version of this song has a badass bass solo at the end.
the long version is a hidden gem .
Your right on the money. Love their music.
Why do people say this?
How can one of the most succesful bands of its era be underrated?
Love the long version. Its the only one i listen to anymore.
I can't imagine recommending this song without specifying the long version.
No auto tune just good harmonies. They are known for this
Exactly
As above - in a time before autotune when people had to be talented. These days all you need is high cheek bones - then they wheel in autotune, ten or twelve producers, a dozen or so song writers. Plus Sweet - in line with all the other Bands of this era - could play live. Back then if you couldn't do it live you couldn't do it full stop.
The first use of auto-tuned vocals was in 1998 on Cher's song "Do You Believe". Auto-tuned vocals heralded the death of good pop music, and re-enforced the MTV standard that what people look like is more important than musical ability. Now, pop music is full of pretty people with no musical talent.
True, but they where lip syncing/miming to this [as was usual in 'Pop' shows].
@@anglosaxon5874 That's another issue, but it was their voices not auto tune which was the point.
We didn't have auto tune back in the day. Just pure talent and great voices.
Great 70's hit. Others by them include:
"Ballroom Blitz", " Little Willy " and "Fox On The Run".
They've already reacted to Ballroom Blitz - see th-cam.com/video/LnCCHkjiEbk/w-d-xo.html
'The Six Teens' and 'The Lies In Your Eyes' are also two far out songs by them. I really like them. I don't know if these songs became hits tho.
'Teenage Rampage'. First single i ever bought aged seven!
They've done Ballroom Blitz: th-cam.com/video/LnCCHkjiEbk/w-d-xo.html
AC/DC, solid gold brass
the long version would knock your socks off . one of the best solos from that Era. I
No auto tune in 1978 thank goodness!! Pure Raw talent ♥️🎤
They didn't have auto tune at that time. This is actual talent unlike the crap bands of today.
Damn straight man. Pure talent!
Have a listen to The Warning
A bit harsh - crap bands have always existed, same as great bands - even today.
THE 70s DIDNT need it
My cousin Keren introduced me to Sweet in 1973 (Blockbuster) - I was 12, she was 15. She was old enough to travel the country and watch them live in local gigs. I've always been thankful for following my cousin's advice.
They were so great. Glad you listened too!
I had always assumed (going back to the 70s) that those high backing vocals were recorded at low speed and then sped up. It wasn't until I watched a documentary on Sweet on DVD that I discovered that they all had incredibly good strong falsettos that could go way up into the stratosphere.
There's a great documentary about them. They worked so hard to sound perfect live (no auto tune existed), that when they were forced to lipsync they would make it obvious that they were and not enjoying it. Great rockers.
Suggestion; when looking for classic rock songs, use the LONGEST version. That will be the album version, which I think many of us heard because we were listening to FM radio. Other stations played the radio versions, which were shorter, with key sections cut out. This song will be worth reacting to again as the long version. Has a great instrumental section.
Loved the slow buildup in the long version!
This song is a timeless classic it never gets old no matter the decade!!!
Tak to prawda .Prawdziwe dzielo.
One of very favourite bands ever. So underrated and they were super talented. They really had it going on. Saw some songs recommended below. I have every album and I'm here to say anything by them is top shelf! Favourite by them is the song" Set Me Free " would love to see a reaction on it. Lex you would dig it. Brad I think you'd like the lyrics. Love you guys reactions. 🤟
No auto tune. No tweak. They were really singing that!
Just a terribly underrated band!!! Sweet made such great music!
A great song. the Sweet were huge in the seventies. NO FG autotune just four guys that knew how to sing!!!
That band did not use auto-tune or any gimmicks great Harmony on the vocals very talented group had lots of great songs but did not get the recognition they really deserved very underrated which is a shame with the amount of talent they had
Sweet were known for their high harmonies. Such an amazing band. Very under-rated.
Underrated band, great hit
Dlaczego niedoceniony u nas w Polsce uwazamy SWEET za jeden z lepszych zespolow w historii muzyki .
These guys were seen as 'Glam rock' but live they really rocked it! Give the tracks 'Action' 'Teenage Rampage' or 'Hell Raiser' a listen.
Action is a great song. The entire Give Us A Wink album is gold
Sweet is still one of my favorites!!!
Mine too man. Killer band unlike so many crappy bands today.
@@jeffreyflint6286 truth.
No auto-tune.....nope nope.... good raw talent. Ya gotta find the long version of this song..... it rocks.
The Sweet were my favourite band as a kid in England. Ballroom Blitz is the first record I got, it cost 50p and I think it was all I got for that birthday. So thanks for this! Yeah those vocal counterpoints are pretty rare and special these days. Even back then it was prized eg. ABBA, Fleetwood Mac, ELO, maybe 10cc or Foreigner.
No autotune, but an incredibly good mix. This was produced very well. Not to downplay their talent. These guys were really good!
That's call harmony.
"Ballroom Blitz", "Fox on The Run", "Sweet FA". Sweet was known for it's glam rock looks but they had a hard rock edge that was ahead of their time on many of their songs.
Sweet Fanny Adam's. What an incredible track from these guys. The guitar solo at the end by Andy just rocks.
Teenage Rampage is one of my favs!
Again, the first popular song with autotune was "Believe" from Cher from 1998. Since then it is called the "Cher Effect". Love is like Oxygen is from 1978 with pure musicality.
Love when this group was all over the airwaves. Such great times.
Talented people didn't need autotune, and you gotta hear the LONG version, you really have to.........
No, they did not use auto tune. They were just very talented. There was SO much talent back then that seems hard to find today.
A very popular band in the early 1970's in Germany. They had many no. 1 hits at the time and as a fan I did owned a life sized poster (you had to put it together yourself when you buy the Bravo teen-magazin every week). It was right over my bed with Alice Cooper, David Cassidy, Donny Osmond, T. Rex, Heintje (I put him up when I was 11,and never had the heart to put him down when I got older), Ricky Shane, Melanie, David Bowie, The Who, The Jackson Five, Led Zeppelin, Bay City Rollers, and Elvis.
My favorite Sweet song was Action - I wore out my Give us a Wink album as a kid. Plus it had a cool cover. Lot of good Sweet songs
Action, Blockbuster, sweet FA, Teenage Rampage, The Six Teens, Wig Wam Bam, Turn it Down, Hellraiser and No You Don't are some of my favorites
Sweet were just cool as hell. Lots of great songs.
Many songs make liberal use of metaphor in the lyrics, but rarely is a song title a direct metaphor, which is the case here. Sweet eschews subtlety as they make the case that love, much like oxygen, must be constantly regulated.
One of Sweet's more serene song titles, this was Sweet's last US, UK and German Top 10 hit, as the group left the glam rock scene for the more plush atmosphere of pop-driven music.
Sweet guitarist Andy Scott wrote this song and was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for the composition. It lost to "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty.
In 2002, Andy Scott told the Slovakian Box Network: "We had finished with our first record company and had begun on a project for another. At that time the era of the Sex Pistols had started, and how people thought of music reached new dimensions. No one knew what was coming next. We were already a part rock, part metal band. Therefore in the area which was most touched by the changes. That is when I wrote the song 'Love is Like Oxygen,' and then the idea came along to compose it in a style which at that time was totally new, yet one that suited us. I think it worked out well. Of course the people didn't accept it so easily. I consider Level Headed to be a good album, it sold around the world."
(Songfacts.com)
The use of the words “like” or “as” makes it a simile. “Love is Oxygen” is a metaphor. “Love is LIKE Oxygen” is a simile.
OMG how I loved them! So many amazing tunes. Saw them twice in Stockholm. Such good tunes and voices. Autotune not invented. Just talent!
The Sweet - Hellraiser - Live at the Rainbow 1973 is a must see.
Finally a suggestion I made got there! R.I.P. Brian ,Mick,and Steve! Blockbuster next by the sweet
I played this song so much , my brother was about to get me. LOL I love it , just the sound of it and their voices and the music . Great song, no autotune, just great harmony and backup
Man somebody build a time machine I'm so ready to go back. Such fun times growing up back then miss those days so much 🤔
A very under rated band from back in the day. They had a great sound and style.
Need to listen to the album version. They cut out a huge section of this song for this video. Someone else said it in the comments, but the best thing to do when picking out a song is pick the longest version.
One of my favourite 'glam rock' songs!
Loved it when it came out was 'Sweet' 17 then! lol.
God, I forget how amazing this song every time.
Great band...."Little Willy", "Fox On the Run", Ballroom Blitz", "Blockbuster"....
If Sweet would have come along a decade later we would be talking about a Hall of Fame band. That being said Sweet should be in the HOF.
This is a great song by Sweet. That Era of Rock music was so cool , a lot of songs about loving a partner to the moon. I recognize that guy on Lex's shirt .. I think he is a stand up comedian or something. 💚🎼🖤
Brad & Lex, you might like their "Little Willy" and "Ballroom Blitz"!
I don’t think they should check out anybody’s “Little Willy”
And "Fox on the Run" !!!
@@jeffcobb2734 they did Fox on the Run already
And they did Ballroom Blitz already. They should check out Wig Wam Bam and The 6 teens
@@traviscook5768 So only the big ones then?
I remember being young and visiting relatives on Prince Edward Island. One of the neighbours repeatedly blasted this song from his house and we could hear it throughout the neighbourhood. Loved it then and still love it now.
The record execs wanted bubblegum hits from these guys , which they delivered on . They were rockers at their core , and also produced some real heavy tunes for the time .
Such a good analogy! "Action" is another wild banger The Sweet had on the radio in the 70s. And "Little Willy" was an earlier hit they had too.
These and Slade were my favourite bands in the early 70s!
The affront to talent known as Autotune didn't exist before the late 90's.😱
There was no auto-tune back then. In fact no computer audio software at all. Pure electronics, and it did not have the "magic" of computers. This was "real" music. 😎
Sweet where a very underrated group, because they where Glamrock their abilities where overlooked.
Awesome group, my favourite from the 70s.
Criminally underrated. I'm not their biggest fan, but I've loved every song I've heard.
Sweet, along with Queen, and probably Boston, made great rock music with harmonies. For Sweet and Queen both had three singers in different ranges so you get that three point harmony. Some of Sweet's music is heavy too, they were big into Deep Purple.
Yet another great UK band from the early '70s, along with T.Rex and Slade (who could also do pop and heavy) who made it big in the UK and elsewhere, but never in the US. The US wasn't ready for glam rock meets hard rock, until KISS.
Fox on the Run,Lies in your Eyes,Live for Today,Set me Free,
Long version of course, is a master piece, especially the bass melody and drums.
No auto tune, pure talent, the 70s & 80s music was the best
The first autotune song was a Cher number in 1998/99
There was talkbox/vocoder/the bag before then, but that's very different and primitive. "The Bag" was used by Stevie Wonder and Jeff Beck, talkbox by Peter Frampton, Roger Troutman and Richie Sambora but only really as an overt novelty effect, not throughout a record to help charlatans sing in tune. Those old gimmicks involved sticking a tube in your "cakehole" as Jeff Beck used to say, which was linked to a speaker in a bag or box. As you played guitar or keyboard, then the sound would pass up the tube and into your mount so that you can form the notes into words with great difficulty. Cher's use of autotune was also for novelty effect when it was in its infancy - nothing lacking in Cher's abilities.
Love the way happy bursts out in your face, girl...
Couldn't tell ya what buddy's doin' next to ya
~lol 👍😘
Sweet’s “ Fox on the run” was the song that got everyone out on the skating rink!
One of my favorite glam rock bands from the 70's. I love everything about them!
Four underrated musical geniuses….. Masters
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I love Sweet.
I have this song on my playlist.. love it!
To me this is a timeless tune...soo good!!!
This song always make me think of a collision between ELO and Queen.
Auto Tune didn't come out until '96. This was just good Genuine Talent.
No autotune until the late 90's, early 2000's. One trick back then was to slow the tape down a little. Which would lower the pitch and make it easier to hit the notes in key. Then record the vocal track. Then speed it back up to where it was and it would sound like high pitched vocals.
FYI, there was no Auto-tune when this song was made. The vocals may have been put through some sort of filter or had some kind of effect applied to them, but no auto-tune.
Only people who give real love will understand this song,and so the one who needs to be love.
Brad, please do a Wikipedia search for a song in advance and find the length of the album version and then use the corresponding video on TH-cam! The album version is ALWAYS the best version!
No auto tune
You were listening to the edited version. The album version is almost 7 minutes long. There's so much more to this song that makes it cool. 😎☮️
As others have said ... No autotune! It was not even around. They are/were just that good. You should listen to more of them ... Ballroom Blitz was probably their biggest hit (I think) and definitely worth watching ... they have a video where they were dressed up - Glam Rock period ... I think it was funny.
another band i grew up with brilliant glam rock over here in the UK. loved them. great reaction
This song was recorded long before autotune existed.
A really great band with fantastic players and harmonies…. One of my favourite glam bands …. A whole swag of hits , this one a latter day hit….. Fever of Love, Action, Fox on the Run, Lost Angels,Stairway to the Stars, Peppermint Twist, Lies in your eyes.
This is a radio edit version. The full album version has an instrumental section in the middle with acoustic guitar, piano & electric guitar, and also an outro that throws in a little disco influence.
I secretly had this album along withb" Roxy music " hid them from my friends and bandmate's lol. They wasnt hard enough for my crowd 😎 I loved the riff. Any old geezers like me went to " Rocky Horrer picture show " in the day. Crazy stuff. 🤣🤘
Oh my God I’m so pumped. I’m so glad you finally did it!! Thank you!!!
This song was in my older sister's 45 collection (singles on wax) which i used to listen to when she wasn't home when I was little. I really liked this song
I always got an ELO vibe from this song.
Jinx! I thought the exact same thing!♡👍☮🎶
Yes!
I can’t believe you guys finally played this song!
They are so good they one best groups of all time great live performances
no auto tune in the early '70's just talent.
You two make a great couple and fun to hear you listening to my generations music, wishing you two only great things
No tweaks with the Fabulous Sweet! Rack one had a great voice.
No trickery. just falsettos. Excellent band, thanks for the review.
British glam pop hard rock band popular in 1970’s The bass guitarist Steve Priest died in June of 2020
Omg I have not heard this song in sooo long. LOVE it!! It has a bit of everything and the vocals are so cool on top of the lyrics. Thanks guys for posting!😊
"The Six Teens" "ACDC" "Sweet FA"....And don't forget "Solid Gold Brass"!
The list goes on
Darn, that's the short version. you really should hear the longer one sometime, it's truly a work of art. I think others have mentioned some other great hits by them but basically if you go all the way back to the late 60s or early 70s they had a song called Little Willie which was just on the radio all the time and it's a really fun and catchy song it's a great sing along. but then fast forward if you years to I think around 1974 or so and they put out this album desolation Boulevard and every song on it is fire. but the hits off that are primarily Fox On The Run, and Ballroom Blitz. fast forward again for a few years into the late seventies when Disco was popular and the music was starting to evolve closer towards '80s music but still that classic '70s rock and also you have to understand they were kind of a parody of a Glam band they were basically hard rockers but it was popular in the early '70s with David Bowie and others to kind of go in that direction so they would wear glittery stuff and act it out sometimes but you can tell it was mostly just for fun to have fun with the audience. but anyway in the late seventies they put out this song, Love Is Like Oxygen. and once again they had a huge hit because they evolved with the changing music scene and knew how to bring it. those guys are incredible. it would be fantastic to cover some of these other hits and I guarantee you people would tune in.
should have done the long version. way better!
Those voices are natural......this is original '70s "Glam Rock"....at least one style of!
In the full version, there's a whole trippy instrumental segment that's several minutes long.
This is before auto tune. This is talent.