The Rubettes

The Rubettes came together in England during 1973, when Polydor A&R executive Wayne Bickerton assembled them as a studio group. Taking cues from the breakthroughs of Sha Na Na, Mud, and Showaddywaddy, they fused a glam-rock image—red and white suits topped with matching caps—with a rock & roll revival style. Their opening single, 1974’s “Sugar Baby Love,” exploded onto the scene, occupying the top slot in England for five weeks and climbing to number 37 on the U.S. charts in August; it has remained their signature recording. Later singles met with milder results, yet the band kept performing on the nostalgia circuit through the 2000s.

Recorded in October 1973 by a team of session players with Paul DaVinci on lead vocals, “Sugar Baby Love” preceded the formal launch of the group three months afterward. That lineup featured vocalist/guitarist Alan Williams, drummer John Richardson, bassist Mick Clarke, keyboardists Bill Hurd and Peter Arnesen, and guitarist Tony Thorpe. Both the band’s name and its sound were chosen to evoke 1950s American imagery, and the retro approach yielded further U.K. success on singles such as the “Sugar Baby Love”-style follow-up “Tonight,” plus the Top Ten entries “Jukebox Jive” and “I Can Do It.” None of these crossed over to the States, prompting a shift toward more serious material. In 1976 the band drew notice with “Under One Roof,” a compassionate depiction of a gay man rejected and ultimately killed by his father; alongside Rod Stewart’s “The Killing of Georgie,” the song stood among the scant few tracks confronting homophobia at the time. It reached the Top 40, and the group secured one final Top Ten hit with 1977’s “Baby I Know” before disbanding at decade’s end.

A German promoter persuaded Williams to reassemble the act for festival appearances in 1982. To separate themselves from copycat outfits, they performed as the Rubettes featuring Alan Williams. The revived lineup maintained intermittent European tours within oldies packages well into the 2000s, reuniting original members Richardson and Clarke alongside ex-Kinks keyboardist Mark Haley.