The Rubettes – Juke Box Jive

March 6th, 2009 |

Author: admin

The Rubettes ,

were an English pop band of the 1970s assembled in 1973 by the songwriting team of Wayne Bickerton, the then head of A&R at Polydor Records, and his co-songwriter, Tony Waddington, after their doo-wop and 1950s American pop-influenced songs had been rejected by a number of existing acts. The band duly emerged at the tail end of the glam rock movement, wearing trademark white suits and cloth caps on stage.
The Rubettes’ first (and biggest) hit was “Sugar Baby Love” (released in 1974) which was a UK number one, going on to sell around eight million copies worldwide. Two million copies being sold in France alone an achievement matched by no other British group. The distinctive falsetto lead vocal to “Sugar Baby Love” was performed by Paul Da Vinci (real name: Paul Prewer) on the original Polydor recording session who declined the opportunity to actually become a member of the band put together by John Richardson.

The Rubettes went on to have a number of other hits across Europe during the mid-seventies such as “Tonight”, “Juke Box Jive” and “I Can Do It” sung by Alan Williams, mostly written by the Bickerton-Waddington songwriting team. Their most successful self composed hit was the ‘country rock’ styled ballad – “Baby I Know” – which reached number 10 in the UK & Germany in 1977.

The band continued releasing records into the 1980s, then re-grouped in 1983 in order to exploit the German market for 1970s nostalgia. In 1994, the group’s profile was raised by the inclusion of “Sugar Baby Love” in the hit movie, Muriel’s Wedding. This song was also featured in the 2005 Neil Jordan film, Breakfast on Pluto soundtrack. ….More