Customer Reviews

Sugar, Sugar

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During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Saturday morning cartoons often featured mild forms of rock and roll music, sometimes incidental ("Scooby Doo, Where Are You?"), sometimes because the story line involved a band ("Josie and the Pussycats.") Based on the long popular comic book series, "The Archie Show" found main characters Archie, Betty, Jughead, Reggie, and Veronic performing in a high school band named The Archies. Written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim, "Sugar, Sugar" didn't rate much attention from major acts--and so it was recorded by Ron Dante, Andy Kim, and Toni Wine as a selection for The Archies.

The Archies had actually released an album in 1968 in order to capitalize on the cartoon series' popularity, but it wasn't until the 1969 follow-up EVERYTHING'S ARCHIE that the recordings gained a significant popularity--and that popularity was due to "Sugar, Sugar." Rumor has it that Mike Nesmith of The Monkees was so disgusted by the song that, when it was offered to them, he put his fist through the wall in protest. Well, maybe and maybe not, but doubtlessly every band to whom the song had been offered was seriously put out when it went to number one for four weeks and actually went on to become the best-selling single of the year.

The song is pure bubblegum, but it is bubblegum at its best, bright and bouncy, mindless and charming. Ron Dante sings lead (Archie) and Toni Wine sings the female vocals (Betty and Veronica), while both Dante and Andy Kim perform the general male back up vocals. The whole thing is infectious and a tremendous amount of innocent fun, very indicative of its era and of its light-pop-rock style. No doubt it will be most fondly remembered by those who first heard the song back in 1969, but it's a charming, really nice little recording.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer