Fictional group The Archies goes No.1 on Hot 100 in 1969 with “Sugar, Sugar”
The fictional animated band paved the way for others of the same style
Fictional group The Archies goes No.1 on Hot 100 in 1969 with “Sugar, Sugar”
Before Gorillaz there were The Archies, an American fictional garage band founded by Archie Andrews, Reggie Mantle, Jughead Jones, Veronica Lodge, and Betty Cooper, a group of adolescent characters of the Archie universe, in the context of the animated TV series, The Archie Show. The Archies were sometimes jokingly compared to The Doors, as they had no bass player and their second album, “Everything’s Archie” released in 1969 featured the smash worldwide hit “Sugar, Sugar”, a product of a group of studio musicians managed by Don Kirshner. Ron Dante’s lead vocals were accompanied by those of Toni Wine (who sang the line “I’m gonna make your life so sweet”) and Andy Kim. Together they provided the voices of The Archies using multitracking.
The song was initially released in late May 1969, achieving moderate chart success in the early summer in some radio markets, and was re-released mid-July 1969, then attaining massive success nationwide and worldwide by late summer/early fall. Only after most of the DJs liked the song, they were told that it was performed by a cartoon group. The Archies’ hit wound up as one of the biggest (and most unexpected) number-one hits of the year, one of the biggest bubblegum hits of all time, in America thanks partly to association with the hit CBS-TV Saturday morning cartoon series. In total, it spent 22 weeks in the Billboard Hot 100. The song lists at number 78 on Billboard’s Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Singles. The song started its four-week run on September 20th, 1969, at No.1 in the Hot 100.
Watch the 1969 “Sugar, Sugar” included on The Archies animated series
Watch more 1960’s related videos
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