#Play song sugar sugar archies professional#

Nothing like “Sugar, Sugar” could happen now the closest thing in recent memory, unless I’m forgetting something, is the fleeting success of Crazy Frog. Lester Bangs once called “Sugar, Sugar” “a rock & roll classic to which something like the Grateful Dead’s ‘Dark Star’ can’t hold a candle,” and Bangs also goaded Lou Reed into admitting that he wished he’d written it.ĭoes it matter that the Archies were not actual humans? I think it makes the whole stunt even more audacious. It fills you up and gives you weird little dopamine rushes, and then it lingers. And the song stabs away with its own scientifically calibrated power, building to a weirdly overwhelming crescendo.ĭo people still get snobby about “Sugar, Sugar”? Probably not, right? A song like that does what rock ‘n’ roll is supposed to do.

The half-mocking keyboard riff on the chorus will remain in your head through any calamity that doesn’t kill you. There’s an almost mechanical precision to the beat - bass, drums, handclaps, guitar-strums. It’s a bright and shiny love song, aimed at actual toddlers, that tries to express nothing other than non-threatening warmth.

#Play song sugar sugar archies professional#

These were professional music-biz lifers who didn’t fit with the era’s excesses but who knew their way around a hook.Īnd “Sugar, Sugar” is a merciless hook machine. Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry’s ex-wife who’d co-written most of those classic songs with him, also contributed. Toni White, who’d co-written “A Groovy Kind Of Love” for the Mindbenders, sang the Veronica part. Ron Dante, who sang the lead Archie part, was a former novelty-song guy who would go on to produce records for Barry Manilow and Pat Benatar. “ Jeff Barry was a pop genius who, in the early ’60s, had co-written “Be My Baby” and “Then He Kissed Me” and “Chapel Of Love” and “Leader Of The Pack.” He co-wrote “Sugar, Sugar” with Andy Kim, a Lebanese-Canadian singer and songwriter who was on the way to a pretty decent run as a solo performer. It is a track that is made really interesting because few people know about the group and those who wrote the song: I was interested reading Stereogum’s article about The Archies’ Sugar, Sugar. I know there are people who can’t stand the song. I have heard the song so many times, yet it remains so fresh and exciting. Even though it was released fifty-three years ago, Sugar, Sugar has lost none of its power. A massive-selling single that helped end the 1960s with a huge smile – at a time when bands like The Beatles were breaking up and there was uncertainty in the air -, it would be nice to think that there is going to be another song like this in the future. I think it is a very summery and delightful song that scored high in the charts around the world.

When the song was re-released in mid-July 1969, it achieved enormous success by the late summer/early autumn. The song’s initial release was met with moderate chart success and acclaim. Ron Dante's lead vocals were accompanied by Toni Wine and songwriter Andy Kim. Originally released on the album, Everything's Archie, this album was recorded by a group of studio musicians managed by Don Kirshner. Written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim, it reached number one in the U.S. Among the great one-hit wonders, Sugar, Sugar by The Archies is among the very best. People do want a human face and, with a cartoon group, there is a lack of authenticity and this sense of them being a novelty. Looking further back, there have not been many examples.

Of course, Gorillaz are pretty well known and popular. This clip was also broadcast on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1969.There have not been many cartoon or animated bands. While this music segment was created for broadcast on “The Archie Comedy Hour” in 1969, it also made it’s way to the CBS-TV prime-time special “Archie’s Sugar, Sugar – Jingle Jangle Show” in 1970, which was mostly a repeat of the earlier CBS-TV prime-time special “Archie And His New Pals” from 1969 with both music clips thrown in at the end. The single was backed with “Melody Hill,” and quickly rose to #1 in the Summer of 1969, selling six million copies where it remained for four weeks, knocking The Rolling Stones off the top of the charts in the process, and giving The Archies their first gold record.Īlan Bean and Pete Conrad, the two Apollo 12 astronauts who followed the Apollo 11 astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin to the moon, brought along Archies’ “Sugar, Sugar” and Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man.” “Sugar Sugar” was an irresistible song built on rich boy-girl harmonies and a catchy instrumental hook played on the xylophone.