Date: Sept 20, 1969
Weeks: 4
I didn't expect a TV tie-in song from a cartoon band with the name "Sugar, Sugar" to be anything but a light, pleasant pop song. But this song feels insubstantial even by that standard.
I think the core of the problem is a general lack of percussion and bass. There aren't really drums here, just hand-claps. There is a strummy, limited bass guitar, and if you're lucky you might find a version of the song that ups the bass so you can hear it better, but it's not really holding the rest of the song together as well as it should.
I do like the bass line that we do have. I like the guitar part and the other miscellaneous instruments. There are good musical ideas here, particularly the pipe organ sound that plays in the chorus after every iteration of "Sugar" and "Honey, honey." And the song creates a big wall of sound near the end that has a lot going on at once that is especially appealing.
Lyrically, at least the song knows what it is. "You are my candy girl." "I knew how sweet a kiss could be." This is what happens when someone knowingly makes music to fit into the genre of "bubblegum pop" in the most literal way possible. That said, the lyrical repetition goes in a pattern that is both appealing and reliable without being predictable or boring. These are not deep insights, but the words themselves have an appeal to them.
My verdict: Like it. I wish the percussion was more fully featured, but overall this song has charm. The cover from the 90s is a big improvement on a lot of things, although it doesn't have even as good as a bass line as this original version does.
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