Little Willy (song)

"Little Willy"
Single by The Sweet
from the album The Sweet
B-side"Man from Mecca"
Released19 May 1972 (UK)
January 1973 (US)[1]
Recorded1972
Genre
Length3:13
LabelRCA (UK)
Bell (US & Canada)[7]
Songwriter(s)Nicky Chinn, Mike Chapman
Producer(s)Phil Wainman
The Sweet singles chronology
"Poppa Joe"
(1972) 		"Little Willy"
(1972) 		"Wig-Wam Bam"
(1972)
Official audio
"Little Willy" on YouTube

"Little Willy" is a song written by songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman and performed by the British glam rock band The Sweet, released in 1972 as a non-album single in the UK, peaking at number 4 in the UK Singles Chart. It was released in the US in January 1973 and also appeared on their US debut album The Sweet and became their biggest hit in the US, reaching number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.[8] Billboard ranked it as the number 18 song for 1973.

In a retrospective review of glitter rock, Bomp! noted that although rock music journalists almost uniformly "loathed it", the song was a huge commercial success and "helped launch the essential glitter rock formula sound".[9]

"Little Willy" was used extensively in the pilot of the television series Life on Mars.

  1. ^ "Great Rock Discography". p. 807.
  2. ^ Popoff, Martin (2014). The Big Book of Hair Metal: The Illustrated Oral History of Heavy Metal?s Debauched Decade. Voyageur Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-62788-375-7.
  3. ^ Sendra, Tim. "Golden Groups & Glitter Sounds – Various Artists | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  4. ^ Stanley, Bob (13 September 2013). "Deluxe and Delightful: Glam". Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop. Faber & Faber. p. 338. ISBN 978-0-571-28198-5.
  5. ^ Cantwell, David (4 November 1998). "Power Pop It Ain't". MTV News. Archived from the original on May 14, 2016. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  6. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Sweet | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  7. ^ "The Sweet – Little Willy". Discogs.com. 1972. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  8. ^ "Little Willy by Sweet". Songfacts.com. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
  9. ^ Barnes, Ken (March 1978). "The Glitter Era: Teenage Rampage". Bomp!. Retrieved 25 January 2019 – via Rock's Backpages.