Which takes us all the way back to 1972, when another hair metal legend was creeping up the chart but currently at number 38.
Title: “Wig-Wam Bam”
Artist: The Sweet
Nationality: English
Genre: Glam Rock
Written by: Nicki Chinn, Mike Chapman
Original release date: September 1 1972
Highest chart position (at time of writing): 4
Chart position (at time of writing): 38
Progress, if any, at time of writing: Descending
From the album: The Sweet
What do I know about this artist? One of the big glam rock bands of the 1970s, Sweet all but formed the soundtrack to that era, with hits such as “Fox on the Run”, “Ballroom Blitz” and “BlockBuster”, also heard on the TV series
Life on Mars.
What do I think of this single? It’s not their best, and as the genre says above, a bit more bubblegum pop than glam rock, or anything rock really, and the lyric would certainly have had a lot of SJWs flying to Twitter and Facebook in protest, but hey, it was the seventies, there was no harm meant, and I doubt many Native Americans took offence. Fun, remember that? No? It was quite big in the seventies.
What have I learned about this single? It was apparently the first single The Sweet released on which they actually played their instruments, having had a backing band prior to this, and is actually based on the poem
Hiawatha by Longfellow, so I guess it’s not just appropriating Native American culture (unless you accept/assume Longfellow was doing that anyway). It was also the first song on which the bass player joined in on the singing, a style the band would adopt after this. Seen, too, as their first real glam rock single, though I wouldnt’t personally call it glam rock. Or any rock.
My rating: A-