1968: The Archies – Music AmneZia1968: The Archies

Biography
Genre(s)
Origin
Years
Members
Discography
Song Highlights
Videos
Labels
Associated Acts
Reference

The Archies are a fictional garage band founded by Archie Andrews, Reggie Mantle, and Jughead Jones, a group of adolescent characters of the Archie universe, in the context of the animated TV series, The Archie Show. The group is also known for their real world success, through a virtual band.

The fictional band’s music was recorded by session musicians featuring Ron Dante on vocals and released as a series of singles and albums. Their most successful song, “Sugar, Sugar“, became one of the biggest hits of the bubblegum pop genre that flourished from 1968 to 1972

The Archies play a variety of contemporary popular music, consistent with the era in which the comic is drawn. They seem to have a preference for rock and roll, however.

Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge later also joined the group. Every member sings vocals, with Jughead handling the bass voice on a few tracks. Though their singing voices were soft and appropriate for pop vocals, their speaking voices are much different. The roles the teens played in the fictional band were:

Archie: lead vocals / lead guitar
Reggie: bass guitar / backing vocals
Jughead: drums
Betty: tambourine
Veronica: organ
Hot Dog: mascot / conductor

The Archies are sometimes jokingly compared to The Doors, as they also had no bass player. However, there is some controversy as to whether Reggie played bass or not. In most drawings, his guitar looks identical to Archie’s, making him the band’s second (or co-lead) guitarist. However, a number of drawings (including the one above) clearly show Reggie’s instrument to have four tuning keys, the most common bass design. Six-string bass guitars do exist, however, and the Archies’ recordings regularly featured a bass player. In more than one comic strip, Reggie is described as playing bass (however, this is not necessarily canon, as storylines and hobbies/activities in the Archie world change from story to story). Finally, in the liner notes for 2008’s The Archies Christmas Album, Reggie is listed as the bass guitarist.

One distribution mode for the Archies’ music was cereal boxes: a cardboard record was embossed directly into the back of a box such that the record could be cut out and played on a turntable (although their music was also available on standard issue LPs and 45s). Though the group no longer appears in animation, they are still frequently used in stories published by Archie Comics.

Production

A set of studio musicians were assembled by Don Kirshner in 1968 to perform various songs. The most famous is “Sugar, Sugar”, written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim, which went to #1 on the pop chart in 1969, sold over six million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. In Billboard’s Hot 100, it was ranked as the number one song of that year, the only time a fictional band has ever claimed Billboard’s annual Hot 100 top spot. Other Top 40 songs recorded by The Archies include “Who’s Your Baby?” (U.S. #40), “Bang-Shang-A-Lang” (U.S. #22), and “Jingle Jangle” (U.S. #10). “Jingle Jangle” also sold over one million copies, garnering a second gold disc award.

Male vocals for the fictional Archies group were provided by The Cuff Links’ lead singer Ron Dante and female duet vocals were provided by Toni Wine. Wine, who was only paid for the recording session and quit the group when the song became a huge hit, was succeeded in 1970 by Donna Marie, who in turn was replaced on the final recordings by Merle Miller. The only Archies song not to feature Ron Dante on lead was 1971’s “Love Is Living In You”, sung by Richie Adams. The last single, released 1972, was “Strangers in the Morning”; its B-side song was “Plum Crazy”.

Jeff Barry, Andy Kim, Ellie Greenwich, Susan Morse, Joey Levine, Maeretha Stewart, Bobby Bloom and Lesley Miller contributed background vocals at various times, with Barry contributing his trademark bass voice (portrayed as being sung by Jughead in the cartoon) on cuts such as “Jingle Jangle”, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music”, “A Summer Prayer For Peace” (which hit number one in South Africa and Scandinavia in 1971), and “You Little Angel, You”. Musicians on Archies records included guitarist Hugh McCracken, bassists Chuck Rainey and Joey Macho, keyboard player Ron Frangipane, and drummers Buddy Saltzman and Gary Chester.

The Archies’ records were initially released on the Calendar Records label, but the name was shortly thereafter changed to Kirshner Records.

The sound engineer was Fred Weinberg, who was Jeff Barry’s and Andy Kim’s favorite, and who also recorded Barry’s and Kim’s other hits “Be My Baby”, “Baby I Love You”, and “Rock Me Gently”. Fred Weinberg is an award-winning composer and producer in his own right. However, the music for The U.S. of Archie TV show which aired in 1974, was produced by Jackie Mills, a Hollywood producer, who also produced Bobby Sherman and the Brady Kids. The vocalist for these shows was Tom McKenzie, who also sang on some Groovie Goolie segments, and was a regular member of the popular singing group, the Doodletown Pipers.

Although the verses of Jingle Jangle are supposedly sung by either Betty or Veronica (the only two female members of the fictional group), in reality, it was not performed by any female vocalist, rather it was Dante using a falsetto voice