Bickerton and Waddington had been writing songs together since they were both members of the Pete Best Four in Liverpool in the early 1960s. Their biggest success had been writing "Nothing but a Heartache", a US hit for the Flirtations in 1968.
They then offered it to the demo musicians, provided that they would become an actual group with the exception of the recording's lead singer, Paul Da Vinci, who had signed a solo recording contract with Penny Farthing Records. Surprisingly, only John Richardson, who played drums and spoke the "please take my advice," Alan Williams, who sang in the chorus backing vocal group and Pete Arnesen who played piano [8] would sign up and later become a member of The Rubettes.[9] For public appearances including Top of the Pops, Williams, who claimed to be the only member of the group able to duplicate Da Vinci's falsetto, performed the lead vocals.[10]
Bickerton said:
"We had Paul DaVinci singing in that incredibly high falsetto voice and then a vocal group sings 'Bop-shu-waddy' over and over for about 3 minutes. Gerry Shury, who did the string arrangements, said, 'This is not going to work: you can't have a vocal group singing 'Bop-shu-waddy' non-stop.' A lot of people said the same thing to us and the more determined I became to release it. The record was dormant for 6 or 7 weeks and then we got a break on Top of the Pops and it took off like a rocket and sold 6 million copies worldwide. Gerry said to me, 'I'm keeping my mouth shut and will concentrate on conducting the strings.'"[11]
"Sugar Baby Love" became a UK No. 1 hit in 1974, also reaching No. 37 and No. 30 on the US Billboard Hot 100[12] and Cashbox[13] charts, respectively. It also reached No. 1 in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria and Belgium,[14] and No. 2 in Australia, South Africa and Italy.
"Sugar Baby Love" was covered by Japanese idol duo Wink as their debut single, released on April 27, 1988 by Polystar. The Japanese lyrics were written by Yukinojo Mori, under the pseudonym "Joe Lemon". "Sugar Baby Love" was used as the theme song of the Fuji TV drama series Netsuppoi no! (熱っぽいの!, It's Hot!), which starred Yoko Minamino. The B-side, "Kaze no Prelude", was used as an image song in the drama series.[27]
The single peaked at No. 20 on Oricon's singles chart and sold over 61,000 copies.[28][29]
Sugar Baby Love was covered by the Norwegian Jahn Teigen, and appeared amongst others on the album series called Treff-serien (The Meeting Series) in 1974.
The song was covered in Czech by Josef Laufer titled "Šumař Pépi" in 1974.
The song was covered in Czech by Karel Gott titled "Nic než láska tvá (Nothing but Your Love)" in 1974.
The song was covered in French by Dutch singer Dave, with the title "Trop beau", in 1974.
The song was first covered in European Spanish by J. Santana (previously known as Abel), titled as "Dulce Niña, Amor", in 1974 on his two-song vinyl single Carolina / Dulce Niña, Amor. Likewise, it was also covered in European Spanish by Dave, this time with the title "Sugar Baby Love", in 1975 on his two-song single Dave canta en español: Sugar Baby Love / La Misma Canción.
The song was covered in American Spanish by the Mexican band Grupo Salvaje, titled as "Azucarado", in 1976 on their LP albumSalvaje.
The song was covered by Bulgarian vocal quartet Tonica in 1975. The cover, titled "Svetlina (Light)", was the B-side to Tonica's first single.
The song was used in the beginning of the 1994 Australian movie, Muriel's Wedding.
The song was covered in Portuguese by Sandy & Junior in 1995, titled as "Doce como mel". It was the 13th track on the album Você é D+.
The Wink version was covered by Yoko Ishida in 2001 as the opening theme of the anime series A Little Snow Fairy Sugar. Ishida also covered the English version as a bonus track on the U.S. release of her album Sweets.
The song was covered in Cantonese by Gigi Leung, on the Cantonese version of the Japanese anime series A Little Snow Fairy Sugar, in 2003.
The song was used in the beginning of the 2005 Irish film, Breakfast on Pluto.
The song was used as the opening theme for the Greek satirical TV show, Radio Arvyla since 2008.
