Song Lyric Sunday: Sugar And Spice

As it is Sunday, it must be time for some song lyrics, right? Spot on cue, Jim has given us his post A Craving For Sweets, which encourages us to play a song featuring any, some or all of ‘Sweet, Honey, Sugar, Candy, Chocolate.’ My choice for this takes you right back to my early music days, 1963 in fact. That was the time when The Beatles had just burst onto the music scene and turned everything upside down, and in their wake came several other bands who together became known as representing ‘the Mersey sound,’ named after the river in Liverpool, where they and the Fab Four came from. This is my song for today, from the days when pop groups were all so very clean cut:

The lyrics weren’t especially complicated, but here they are anyway, in case you missed them:

Sugar and spice and all things nice
Kisses sweeter than wine
Sugar and spice and all things nice
You know that little girl is mine

Everybody stops and stares at my baby
When she’s walkin’ down the street
People passin’ by just look at my baby
‘Cause my baby looks so sweet
You know she’s…

Sugar and spice and all things nice
Kisses sweeter than wine
Sugar and spice and all things nice
You know that little girl is mine

Everytime we kiss I get that feelin’
Everytime we simply meet
When I see her smile I get that feelin’
‘Cause my baby looks so sweet
You know she’s…

Sugar and spice and all things nice
Kisses sweeter than wine
Sugar and spice and all things nice
You know that little girl is mine

Never ever known a girl so lovely
Sweet enough to want to eat
Everybody’s crazy ’bout my baby
’cause my baby looks so sweet
You know she’s..

Written by: Fred Nightingale

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

Sugar And Spice was released in October 1963, and was The Searchers’ second big UK hit of the year, getting to #2 in our charts, and making #44 in the US. It followed the success of their debut single, Sweets For My Sweet, which got to #1 here. The more astute among you will have noticed that I could also have played that one for this week’s topic, but as it was a cover of a Drifters song and this was an original I decided to go for this. The song was written by their producer, Tony Hatch, and he followed a template from their first hit: it worked then, so why not repeat a winning formula? He presented the song to the band under the pseudonym of ‘Fred Nightingale’ as he was dubious about their response if they knew it was written by their record producer. The first line of the chorus,”Sugar and spice and all things nice”, references the nursery rhyme What Are Little Boys Made Of?, while the following line is the title of a well-known Pete Seeger/ Lee Hays composition from 1950, Kisses Sweeter than Wine. Hatch went on to have a prolific songwriting career, both on his own and then with Jackie Trent, who he later married. Among a massive list of artists for whom they wrote one of the best known is probably Petula Clark who, with Hatch’s help, had a string of 1960s hits, including the real biggie: Downtown.

The Searchers had several more top ten singles in the UK, including two further #1s. The follow up to this one, Needles And Pins, was one of those, also giving them their best US chart placing, at #13. A version of the band continued right up until 2019, playing on the golden oldies circuit which is still popular here.

That would be it for today, but I’m feeling in a generous mood so here is a little bonus for you – that first big hit of theirs:

Enjoy your day, and I’ll see you again on Tuesday 🎶