Sugartime Explained

Sugartime
Cover:	Sugartime_-_The_McGuire_Sisters.jpg
Type:	single
Artist:	The McGuire Sisters
Album:	Sugartime
B-Side:	Banana Split
Released:	December 1957^[1]
Genre:	Vocal pop
Length:	2:31
Label:	Coral
Prev Title:	Santa Claus is Comin' to Town
Prev Year:	1957
Next Title:	Ding Dong
Next Year:	1958

"Sugartime" is a popular song written by Charlie Phillips and Odis Echols, and published in 1957. The biggest hit version was by the McGuire Sisters, whose recording of it topped the Most Played chart in February 1958.^[2] It was also the second number 1 Billboard single for the trio after 1954's "Sincerely". The song refers to the Jimmie Rodgers tune "Honeycomb", which had been recorded a few months earlier in 1957.

A version by Johnny Cash, culled from his Sun Records catalogue, briefly returned to the Cashbox country chart in 1961.

The chorus was sampled for the title song of the Bollywood movie Dil Deke Dekho.

The melody is remarkably similar to that of "I'm Daffy Over You", written by Chico Marx and Sol Violinsky, and performed by Marx in several films.^[3]

The main melody is also reminiscent of Saint-Saens' Havanaise.

Cover versions

• A recording by British singer Alma Cogan was a hit later in 1958.
• The McGuire Sisters themselves covered it in a twist arrangement in 1960. It was their last chart hit as a trio, bubbling under the Billboard Hot 100 at number 107.
• Alice Babs (Swedish lyrics by Eric Sandström)
• Lily Berglund, another Swedish version
• Linda McCartney, Reggae-version produced by Lee Perry
• Johnny Cash (on Now Here's Johnny Cash)
• Shigga Shay sampled it in "Shigga Morning", featuring Inch Chua.
• Bagel Bites co-opted the song for a jingle in a 1996 commercial titled "Pizza in the Morning".
• The Wilburn Brothers on the album Side by Side (Decca, 1958)

Notes and References

1. "This Week's Best Buys", Billboard, December 23, 1957. p. 34. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
2. Book: Whitburn, Joel . Joel Whitburn

   . The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits. Joel Whitburn . 2004 . 8th. Record Research . 414.

3. Web site: "Unknown" Marx Brothers Music. Nitrateville.com. 28 April 2021.