The Archies
The Archies was a fictional American animated film - music group that became known worldwide for four years from 1968 for four years through some hits and had its origin in the comics of the same name by John L. Goldwater and Bob Montana.
History of origin
Music producer and music promoter Don Kirshner founded the test tube rock band Monkees in August 1966 and placed them in the television series of the same name on NBC. The TV series served as the vehicle for the Monkees records, which were played by session musicians and which became hugely popular. When the Monkees' success waned in March 1968, Kirshner looked for a copy of this success story. After the music magazine Billboard had reported in May 1968 that promoter Kirshner would put together a new rock group to produce the 17-episode cartoon TV series The Archies Show with her from autumn 1968, he used the same methods as with the Monkees. He used the successful composer Jeff Barry as a lyricist, who brought Toni Wine with him as a session singer. Kirshner, in turn, brought in the experienced session singer Ron Dante as lead singer. The session musicians were Ron Frangipane (keyboards), Dave Appell (guitar), Chuck Rainey (bass) and Gary Chester (drums). The artificially assembled group was only intended for studio performances, they never really existed as a group and did not appear in shows.
The session musicians were formally given a record deal as Archies with Kirshner's Calendar Records in September 1968. The animated series The Archie Show started nationally on Saturdays at CBS on September 14, 1968 and ran for a year until August 30, 1969. The television series was based on the cartoon characters The Archies, which comic book publisher John L. Goldwater in December 1942 in Had published newspapers. The young band members of the comic series were initially Archie Andrews ( guitar ), Reggie Mantle (guitar, accompaniment) and Jughead Jones ( drums ), later Betty Cooper ( tambourine ) and Veronica Lodge ( keyboard ) joined them.
The banal content of the series is about Archie, who is in love with Betty and Veronica at the same time and cannot choose between the two. With ratings of up to 75%, the series was one of the absolute successes on US television. It served as a vehicle for the pop music of the fictional group Archies, which Kirshner had put together for this purpose only.
Singles
The first single was released in September 1968, parallel to the beginning of the television series, the title Bang-Shang-A-Lang , which also missed the upper echelons of the pop charts , as did the successor single Feelin 'so Good (S. kooby - D. oo) which came on the market in December 1968.
Sugar, Sugar , the Archies' third single, was recorded in January 1969 at RCA Manhattan Studio A, arranged and produced by Jeff Barry, who was the sole author of almost all of the initial titles - including the first record, Bang-Shang- A-long . The still unknown Canadian Andy Kim contributed to the interpretable text and was responsible for the music.
The single released in June 1969 as Sugar, Sugar / Melody Hill (Calendar # 1008) was initially unsuccessful. The breakthrough came in July 1969 when the progressive radio station KYA in San Francisco played the record repeatedly and the drug scene interpreted the passage "pour your sugar on me" as a drug reference. By August 30, 1969, 1 million copies had been sold; on October 30, 1969, more than 3 million were sold in the USA alone, and a further million were added in Great Britain. Besides the USA (4 weeks) and GB (8 weeks), the record was number one in 6 other countries, including Germany (for 7 weeks). At least 6 million copies were sold worldwide.
Further single releases up to 1972 were again mediocre, so that the artificial group is identified with Sugar, Sugar .
In 1970, the group received the Silver Bravo Otto from the German youth magazine Bravo .
Discography
Albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 US
|
|||
| 1969 | The Archies | - |
US88 (21 weeks) US |
|
| Sugar Sugar (DE) / Everything's Archie (US) |
DE25 (4 weeks) DE |
US66 (36 weeks) US |
First published: August 1969
Producer: Jeff Barry |
|
| 1970 | Jingle jangle | - |
US125 (10 weeks) US |
First published: December 1969
Producer: Jeff Barry |
| Sunshine | - |
US137 (6 weeks) US |
First published: August 1970
Producer: Jeff Barry |
|
More albums
- 1971: This Is Love
- 2008: The Archies Christmas Party (release: September 30th)
- 2016: Sugar, Sugar (release: February 16)
Compilations
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
US
|
|||
| 1970 | The Archies Greatest Hits | - |
US114 (12 weeks) US |
First published: November 1970
Producer: Jeff Barry |
More compilations
|
|
Singles
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
US
|
|||
| 1968 | Bang-Shang-A-Lang The Archies |
- | - | - | - |
US22 (13 weeks) US |
First published: August 1968
Author: Jeff Barry |
| Feelin 'so Good (S. kooby - D. oo) Everything's Archie |
- | - | - | - |
US53 (8 weeks) US |
First published: December 1968
Authors: Andy Kim , Jeff Barry |
|
| 1969 |
Sugar, Sugar Everything’s Archie |
DE1  (22 weeks)DE |
AT1 (20 weeks) AT |
CH2 (16 weeks) CH |
UK1  (26 weeks)UK |
US1 (22 weeks)US |
First published: May 1969
Authors: Andy Kim, Jeff Barry |
| Jingle Jangle Jingle Jangle |
DE7 (14 weeks) DE |
- | - | - |
US10 (13 weeks)US |
First published: November 1969
Authors: Andy Kim, Jeff Barry |
|
| 1970 | Who's your baby? |
DE21 (8 weeks) DE |
- | - | - |
US40 (7 weeks) US |
First published: February 1970
Authors: Andy Kim, Jeff Barry |
| Sunshine Sunshine |
DE26 (6 weeks) DE |
- | - | - |
US57 (7 weeks) US |
First published: June 1970
|
|
More singles
- 1970: Together We Two (released September 21)
- 1971: This Is Love (released March)
- 1971: A Summer Prayer for Peace (release: July)
- 1972: Love Is Living in You (release: January)
- 1972: Strangers in the Morning (released June)
- 1972: Plum Crazy
- 1980: Sugar, Sugar (Special Extended Candyfloss Mix)
- 1991: Sugar, Sugar (DJ Les and the Kool Kat feat. The Archies)
Sources and Notes
- ↑ Billboard Magazine, May 18, 1968, Kirshner Channeling Archies To A TV-Disk Launching Pad , p. 3
- ↑ Dante was an experienced session singer who can be heard on Hang On Sloopy ( McCoys ) or Only in America ( Jay & the Americans ). In 1965 he formed The Detergents group, which had a hit with Leader of the Laundromat , a parody of Jeff Barry's Leader of the Pack . Since 1963 he made records as Ronnie Dante
- ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 276
- ↑ a b c Chart sources: Singles DE UK US1 US2
- ^ The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .
- ↑ a b c gold / platinum databases US
- ^ Günter Ehnert: Hit balance sheet - German chart singles 1956-1980 . 1st edition. Verlag popular music-literature, Norderstedt 2000, ISBN 3-922542-24-7 , p. 443 .
Web links
- The Archies at Allmusic (English)
- The Archies at Discogs (English)