Expert: Bong Santos - 3/31/2008

Question
pls. help me get the title/artist of this 80's song "sweet for my sweet, sugar for my honey".. can't say if that's the correct title but the lyrics i believe goes that way. if my memory serves me right, it was a sample of the beatles track "I should have known better". The tune goes the same way as well, however the chorus  goes "sweet for my sweet sugar for my honey". it was one of those one hit wonder kinda stuff in the 80's (in the the Philippines for that matter as i'm uncertain if it became a hit or was even played elsewhere). here i remember it had some fare share of airplays back in the day along with the other italo tunes (not sure if this song i'm talking about can also be classified as italo). anyway hope to hear from you soon. thanks in advance. all the best!

Answer
Dear les,

That song is actually a 60's original, SWEETS FOR MY SWEET was written by DOC POMUS and MORT SHUMAN and was initially recorded by THE DRIFTERS back in 1961 for their album SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR ME. It went to No. 16 on the Hot 100 Chart back in October 30, 1961. It was next recorded by THE SEARCHERS as their debut single back in 1963 and became a No. 1 hit in the UK Chart. It was also a hit for TONY ORLANDO back in 1979 out of his self-titled solo effort, peaking at No. 54 on August 4, 1979. I can't see any connection of the song to the BEATLES' I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER but you may have mistaken SWEETS FOR MY SWEET with another "sweet" song SUGAR SUGAR which was featured in the 1981 single STARS ON 45 MEDLEY with other BEATLES song. SWEETS FOR MY SWEET was recorded a number of times in the past and in different languages among them MANOLO MUNOZ Spanish version. The last time it was a hit here was back in 1994 by CJ LEWIS. Another Italo disco version by CHRISS was also a hit in 1986.

Maraming salamat po!!

BONG M. SANTOS
Manila, Philippines