Sweet Pea (song)

"Sweet Pea"
"Sweet Pea"
Single by Tommy Roe
from the album Sweet Pea
B-side	"Much More Love"
Released	1966
Genre	Bubblegum pop
Length	2:19
Label	ABC Records 10762
Songwriter(s)	Tommy Roe
Producer(s)	Gary S. Paxton
Tommy Roe singles chronology

"Sweet Pea" is a bubblegum pop song written and performed by Tommy Roe. It was produced by Gary S. Paxton^[1] and featured on his 1966 album, Sweet Pea.^[2] In the lyrics, the singer spots a girl at a dance whom her friends call "Sweet Pea." There's no explanation of how she got this nickname. After dancing with her, he suggests they go for a walk where he tells her he loves her and wants her to be his girl.^[3]

Chart performance

The song reached number 1 in Canada,^[4] number 1 in New Zealand, number 7 in Australia,^[5] and number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966.^[6] It ranked number 44 on Billboard magazine's Top Hot 100 songs of 1966.^[7]

Other versions

The Ventures included an instrumental version on their 1966 album, Wild Things!^[8]
Roger Williams made it the B-side to his single "Love Me Forever" in April 1967.^[9]
Friar Tuck recorded it as the B-side to his single "Alley-Oop" in May 1967.^[10]
Manfred Mann released it as a single in May 1967 that reached number 36 in the United Kingdom.^[11]
Donald Lautrec put out a single in 1967.^[12]
Gang Starr sampled Roe's version on their 1989 song "Movin' On" from the album No More Mr. Nice Guy.
Big Audio Dynamite's song "Rush" samples the drum break from Roe's "Sweet Pea".
The 2007 re-release of Cub's 1993 album Betti-Cola featured a cover of the song.

In media

Samantha Morton performs a frenetic dance to the tune in the 1999 film Jesus' Son.^[13]
The song is also played in the background in two episodes of the Hulu drama mini series, The Girl from Plainville (2022).