THE SOUND OF MUSIC HAPPENING THINGS: The Archies – Sugar Sugar.

For the past week or so I’ve been railing to myself against the tired, hackneyed formula of
white, indie, flavour free guitar music. Since I made this proclamation I appear to have thought about nothing but music by the very same young men I’ve been railing against. Today, I champion an imaginary collection of white youngsters making their way in the pop world. It all began with those Hollywood mavericks Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider. In 1965 they developed a plot for a tv series,
pitched at the early teens. In it, a pop band – not dissimilar to The Beatles in
format – lived in a beachside shack and the show consisted of their ‘madcap, zany’ antics while trying to get themselves gigs and understood. The series was called “The Monkees”. The music for the tv series was produced and selected by
industry bigwig, Don Kirschner, who through his Aldon Music publishing house had founded the careers of some of the biggest songwriters of that time, working out of New York’s celebrated Brill Building. He also invented the phrase “bubblegum pop”. Following a spat with the actors over playing on their music, The Monkees threw their much valued toys out of the pram, sacked Kirschner and became a real band. Mickey Dolenz has likened this to Leonard Nimoy becoming a real Vulcan. But Kirschner, the man with the golden ear, smelled cash. There was gold in that bubblegum and he wanted some.
Archie Andrews – not the ventriloquist dummy off the radio with the same name- and his gang were the stars of a hugely successful American comic that ran for most of the Sixties. In 1968 they were given their own animated tv show, with music provided by Kirschner, still sore from his sacking by those ungrateful Monkees. In keeping with the cynical nature of the business, albums were released under The Archies name featuring the uncredited work of some of the greatest session players in the history of pop. “Sugar Sugar” was taken from their second LP, it was written by Brill Building stalwarts Jeff Barry and Andy Kim and produced by Barry. The vocals were provided by Ron Dante and Toni Wine. Dante also sang on The Cufflinks hits “Tracy” and “When Julie Comes Around”. In the Seventies he would reach the top of the hill as a musical arranger for Barry Manilow. It had been promo’d as a cover-up, Kirschner only too aware of how The Archies nonexistence may act as a bar to the record’s success. Following a near miss on a small label, Kirschner re-released it on his own imprint and the record went stellar overnight. It was the American single of the year, and it was Number One in the UK for eight weeks at a time when records were selling hundreds of thousands to make it into the Top Five.
It is, without doubt, one of the most scintillating, bouncing examples of mindless
mainstream pop ever made. It has that innocence and charm that great popbmusic is meant to have – it’s not vicious or malicious, just lovely and delicious, as a great woman once said. It is the central pillar of all bubblegum pop, more than “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy”, more than “ABC”, nearly as much as “Beach Baby”.
The Archies went on to make several more LP’s, including 1970’s much acclaimed “Live At The Electric Firehouse” which received five star reviews in Rolling Stone and is now regarded as one the great lost LP’s of its day. Kirschner was smitten by his own idea of disposable, here today pop. Following on from the success with The Archies, he took the idea of The Cowsills “The Rain, The Park and Other Things” – the flower girl song from “Dumb And Dumber” and ran with the concept of an entire family making music together. This would be the template for The Partridge Family and the makings of pop music in the next decade. Of all the music in all the Sixties that I have ever heard, “Sugar Sugar” is one of the very best. I was seven years old when it was out, on the radio and in the charts. It remains one of the high points of music in my life, never mind all that highfalutin difficult, challenging, obscure stuff that I’ve entertained over the years. As I often say, sometimes the greatest things are hiding in plain sight and “Sugar Sugar” is just one of those fantastic things. Play it to death. x