"Sweet Guy" is a song by Australian rock group Paul Kelly and the Messengers released in June 1989 as the lead single from the studio album, So Much Water So Close to Home.
[6] In 2004 Paul Kelly and the Boon Companions performed the track for the DVD, Ways & Means, in the section subtitled Live in Boston.
[6] It was later covered by Renée Geyer on Difficult Woman (1994) – Kelly produced her album, also wrote the title song, "Careless" and "Foggy Highway".
[11][12] Adalita Srsen (ex-Magic Dirt) sang both "Sweet Guy" and "Everything's Turning to White" for the Kelly tribute show and related album, Before Too Long (2010).
[19] Rilen (Rose Tattoo, X) had supplied bass guitar for Kelly's first solo album, Post (1985), and was married to Stephanie Falcolner (Sardine v) at the time.
[1][19][20] This was the first song that Kelly had penned from a woman's point of view – he was initially hesitant to sing it himself fearing that it would not sound "honest".
[6] Kelly liked Barclay's backing vocals as they "sounded sweet" and Connolly "had written a killer guitar riff to kick things off".
[6] Kelly enjoyed cross-singing and wrote both "Everything's Turning to White" and "South of Germany" from a woman's perspective – these tracks also appear on So Much Water So Close to Home.
[22] Allmusic's Mike DeGagne liked "Everything's Turning to White" and "Sweet Guy" from So Much Water So Close to Home, he calls the latter "a disturbing piece" and observed that "[b]oth songs are true to Kelly's intriguing knack of fiction telling, making some of the other tunes seem a little weak in the content department".