"Sweet Little Mystery" is a song by Scottish

soft rock Soft rock (also known as light rock or mellow rock) is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in the United States and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, mel ...

band

Wet Wet Wet Wet Wet Wet are a Scottish soft rock band formed in 1982. They scored a number of hits on the UK charts and around the world in the 1980s and 1990s. They are best known for their 1994 cover of the Troggs' 1960s hit " Love Is All Around", which ...

. It is the fifth single from the band's debut album '' Popped In Souled Out'' (1987), released on

Phonogram Inc. Phonogram Incorporated was started in 1970 as a successor to Philips Phonographic Industries, a unit of the Grammophon-Philips Group (GPG), a joint venture of Philips N.V. of the Netherlands and Siemens AG of Germany. It was a holding company f ...

Records. The success of the song drove it to number five on the weekly UK Singles Chart the same year as its release. The following year, the song became an international hit, entering the top 20 in Belgium, France, Ireland, Netherlands and New Zealand. Its peak positioning in numerous weekly charts around the globe marked its contributions to the soft-rock genre which dominated the era. "Sweet Little Mystery" is Wet Wet Wet's second biggest hit globally, with their cover of

the Troggs The Troggs (originally called the Troglodytes) are an English beat music band formed in Andover, Hampshire, in May 1964. Their most famous songs include the US chart-topper " Wild Thing", " With a Girl Like You" and " Love Is All Around", al ...

' "

Love Is All Around "Love Is All Around" is a song recorded by English rock band the Troggs. Released as a single in October 1967, it was a top-ten hit in both the UK and US. "Love Is All Around" has been covered by numerous artists, including R.E.M., with w ...

" being their most known song. The song endured widespread criticism and the group was later sued for copyright infringement by

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan "Van" Morrison (born 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician whose recording career started in the 1960s. Morrison's albums have performed well in the UK and Ireland, with more than 40 reaching the UK ...

. The group received further criticism for similarities to

John Martyn Iain David McGeachy (11 September 1948 – 29 January 2009), known professionally as John Martyn, was a British singer-songwriter and guitarist. Over a 40-year career, he released 23 studio albums and received frequent critical acclaim. ...

's song of the same name from 1980. Both John Martyn and Van Morrison received co-writers' credits for the song. Five years after the band's split in 1997,

Marti Pellow Marti Pellow (born Mark McLachlan; 23 March 1965) is a Scottish singer. He was the lead singer of the pop group Wet Wet Wet for 28 years: from their formation in 1982 until their split in 1997, and again from their reformation in 2004 to his d ...

recorded the song solo in his 2002 album ''Marti Pellow Sings the Hits of Wet Wet Wet & Smile''.

Recording

The song was originally recorded as a soul piece by the band in the mid-1980s, but Phonogram Inc. said it was not "commercial enough for the 80s". The band eventually re-recorded the single in Memphis in 1986, along with the remaining songs from '' The Memphis Sessions'' album, and transformed its composition to fit the pop-rock genre.

Composition

"Sweet Little Mystery" is a

, pop song with a medium tempo. It contains bass, drums, guitar, keyboard and voice and was recorded in the key of

C major C major is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and its parallel min ...

. The vocal range of G4-G5 categorises the song in the range of the

alto The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: '' altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In four-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in ch ...

voice. To fit into the pop-rock genre, the song was re-recorded to have an accumulative beginning, with the riff being gradual and rhythmically active. Spicer (2004) explains this as the "technique of building up a groove". Marti Pellow stated in an interview that changes were made to the song's composition because producers and record labels were "trying to make Wet Wet Wet particularly radio-friendly". Graeme Clark, bass player of the band, shared the band's experience experimenting with different versions of "Sweet Little Mystery" in an interview with Paul Sinclair. "We did a Stock Aitken Waterman version of 'Sweet Little Mystery' and we never put that on there because it did … we had internal arguments about that, because I thought it should be on there, right, but the argument and the band line was it’s too much like Stock Aitken Waterman with a Marti vocal. And I don’t know if I agree with that…” On the five-disc ''Popped in Souled Out'' super deluxe edition, "Sweet Little Mystery" is featured on disc three as a "Mista E remix".

Music video

Mike Brady directed the video for "Sweet Little Mystery", and Phonogram Inc, a subsidiary of PolyGram, produced it. Brady had also directed their single "Angel Eyes". The filming of the video took place in

The Gambia The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...

in West Africa. The video opens with a young Gambian boy saying "Hello and welcome to Gambia" as the band arrives by plane into the country. The video first depicts Radio Syd broadcasting the band's fresh new single in Gambia. It contains montages, transitioning from their performing at a beach bar to dancing with the local community, displaying the many landscapes of the country. The video released in 1987, when home video was becoming increasingly popular. Julian Petley states that, in 1979, 230 000 people in the UK owned

home video Home video is recorded media sold or Video rental shop, rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. ...

, compared to 13.8 million people in 1989. For the production of the "Sweet Little Mystery" video, Fowler (2017) stated he needed to adopt "the notion of performance in its fullest sense" to fit into the emerging "world of film and pop". This influenced the decision in performing to a local community in Gambia.

Live performances

"Sweet Little Mystery" was first performed on the Wets' ''Popped In Souled Out'' tour on 10 October 1987 at the

Edinburgh Playhouse Edinburgh Playhouse is a theatre in Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of For ...

. This tour took place throughout the UK. There are performances of "Sweet Little Mystery" featured on the five-disc ''Popped in Souled Out'' super deluxe edition. The DVD features the song being performed for the BBC's television program ''

Top of The Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...

'' on 13 August 1987 and 27 August 1987. A live version of the song is also featured on Wet Wet Wet's Spotify as "Sweet Little Mystery – Live at Capital Radio". To celebrate the album's 30th anniversary, the band performed the song on a tour in 2017. Soon after this tour, lead singer Marti Pellow left the band to work on a solo career.

Controversy

In the years following the song's release, the Wets endured widespread criticism, acquiring the reputation of being "the Scottish pop robbers", for using lyrics from Van Morrison's " A Sense of Wonder". Morrison sued the band for copyright infringement and claimed a co-writer's credit on the song. Whilst Morrison sued the band, lead singer Marti Pellow stated they used two lines from "A Sense of Wonder" "to pay homage to him – Van the Man was a big influence on us". The band also shares co-writing credit for "Sweet Little Mystery" with British singer

, as their choruses share similarities.

Track listings

Standard 7-inch single :A. "Sweet Little Mystery" :B. " Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" UK 12-inch and cassette single # "Sweet Little Mystery" # "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" # "World in Another" UK 12-inch single 2 :A1. "Sweet Little Mystery" :A2. "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" :B1. "

Heaven Help Us All "Heaven Help Us All" is a 1970 soul single composed by Ron Miller and first performed by Motown singer Stevie Wonder. The song continued Wonder's string of Top 10 singles on the pop charts reaching #9 on the Hot 100 singles chart and #2 on the R ...

" :B2. "May You Never" European maxi-CD single # "Sweet Little Mystery" – 3:43 # "I Can Give You Everything" – 4:05 # "Sweet Little Mystery" ('' The Memphis Sessions'') – 3:34 # "Heaven Help Us All" (''The Memphis Sessions'') – 3:51 Canadian 7-inch single :A. "Sweet Little Mystery" – 3:43 :B. "I Can Give You Everything" – 4:05 US 12-inch single # "Sweet Little Mystery" (Mister "E" mix) – 6:08 # "Sweet Little Mystery" (dub version) – 7:13 # "Sweet Little Mystery" (7-inch version) – 3:42

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

In popular culture

"Sweet Little Mystery" became the band's first single to reach peak position in the charts, making the band known to be in the high rankings of Scotland's most famous acts. The song was known to have consistent airplay on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

and

Radio Clyde Radio Clyde is a group of two Independent Local Radio stations serving Glasgow and West Central Scotland. Radio Clyde is owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK, Bauer, based at studios in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire and forms part of Baue ...

References

{{Authority control Wet Wet Wet songs 1987 singles 1987 songs 1988 singles Mercury Records singles Music videos directed by Mike Brady Songs written by Graeme Clark (musician) Songs written by Marti Pellow Songs written by Neil Mitchell (musician) Songs written by Tommy Cunningham Songs written by Van Morrison