Sweet Sensation (band)

Sweet Sensation
Origin	Manchester, England
Genres	Soul
Years active	1973–1978
Labels	Pye Records
Past members	Junior Daye Roy Flowers Vincent James Barry Johnson Marcel King St. Clair L. Palmer Gary Shaughnessy Leroy Smith

Sweet Sensation was an eight piece British soul group who had some success in the mid 1970s. They are best known for their 1974 No. 1 UK hit, "Sad Sweet Dreamer".

Formed in Manchester in 1973 the band came to prominence after appearing on the ITV talent show New Faces. Under the guidance of panellist Tony Hatch the band signed to Pye Records. The debut single "Snowfire" failed to reach the charts, but the follow-up "Sad Sweet Dreamer" was a UK number one single in October 1974, also reaching #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 the following spring. The follow-up "Purely by Coincidence" reached #11 in the UK in January 1975. Both songs were written by David Parton.

Follow-up singles "Hide Away from the Sun", "Mr Cool", "Sweet Regrets" and "Mail Train" all failed to make the charts over the next couple of years. In 1977 the band participated in A Song For Europe in an attempt to represent the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Their song "You're My Sweet Sensation" ended in eighth place. Subsequently, they were then dropped by Pye and disbanded shortly after. However, they were the forerunners of many similar acts from The Real Thing to Imagination.

The youngest member and lead vocalist, Marcel King, tried to resurrect a solo career in 1985, and with Donald Johnson (A Certain Ratio) and Bernard Sumner (New Order) recorded "Reach For Love" (written by King) for Factory Records without commercial success, followed by "Hollywood Nights" for ZYX. King died of a brain haemorrhage on 5 October 1995 at the age of 37.

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