Sam Harris — “Sugar Don’t Bite”

Entered Top 40:  November 3, 1984
3  weeks 
Peaked at: 36

Before there was American Idol, there was Star Search. The syndicated series debuted in 1983 and resurrected the talent-competition variety show, which had been venerable on radio and early TV (Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts being the big one) before going off the rails in the ’70s with The Gong Show. Panels of celebrity judges would rate performers vying for grand prizes of $100,000, but not recording contracts.

Sam Harris was Star Search’s first Male Vocalist champion, an LA-based singer by way of Oklahoma. He seemed to be aiming toward Broadway more than pop stardom, if this Star Search supercut is any indication. In any case, a record deal with Motown soon followed. Harris’s debut LP included his “Over the Rainbow” rendition that carried him on Star Search (see above link), and several songs by songwriters Bruce Roberts and Donna Weiss, including “Sugar Don’t Bite.”

Fellow pedants, please note there is a missing comma in this song’s title; it’s an imperative and not about the lack of spice or other zing in monosaccharides.

So did “Sugar Don’t Bite” sound familiar to you? Does any of it, especially around the chorus, seem perhaps reminiscent of a specific Madonna song? Roberts & Weiss sure thought so when “Papa Don’t Preach” came out in 1986. Lost in the controversy around what “Papa” may or may not have had to say about teen pregnancy is that Roberts & Weiss received an undisclosed settlement from the Madonna camp around the similarities.

That was it for Sam Harris on the pop charts; his second Motown album went gold but had no charting singles, but he’s said he was more satisfied with it. He did go on to Broadway and theatrical tours. Though during all the “Sugar Don’t Bite” hype, Harris was also writing and showrunning the first season of Down to Earth, a sitcom about a 1920s flapper/angel trying to earn her wings as a maid/housekeeper to an ’80s family. The show is also notable for being the first original series produced for TBS, then still an Atlanta superstation; and the second sitcom in which Dick Sargent replaced a main cast member (the first being Bewitched). Down to Earth was around for 4 years; Harris was involved for Season 1. Here’s a full episode.

This is the era where a show’s theme song explains the whole series. Harris also cowrote this theme; presumably he’s singing too? That’d probably be galling if not.

And the other Season 1 Star Search champions? The Female Vocalist winner was Monica Pege, who’d been a member of Barry Manilow’s backup singers, Lady Flash. They’d had a moderate hit in 1976 with “Street Singin’” (#27). The group champion was country act Sawyer Brown, who got signed shortly after and were a big-deal country act into the 2000s. Tracey Ross won the Spokesmodel category, and parlayed it into soap opera gigs on Ryan’s Hope and Passions. And the first Comedian champion was eventual Everybody Loves Raymond costar Brad Garrett. We’re going to see another Star Search champion in the Bottom Five in a few years, coming out of the Junior Vocalist category. Aside from maybe Billy Porter and Leann Rimes, though, you’ve probably heard of more eventual Star Search losers than the winners. Among the fallen were Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Sinbad, Ray Romano, Rosie O’Donnell, Tiffany, and Destiny’s Child, back when they were a juvenile act called Girls Tyme.