Song of the Day 11/1: The Archies, “Sugar, Sugar”

El Somnambulo did a great job of highlighting some of the music of 1969, but he left a big one out — the song that topped the Billboard charts for the entire year. No, not the Beatles, or the Stones, or any other flesh-and-blood musical act. It was The Archies, a studio-only “band” created for a cartoon series, performing a catchy pop confection co-written by Jeff Barry, who co-wrote many of the girl group hits of the early ’60s (“Da Doo Ron Ron,” “Then He Kissed Me,” and “Be My Baby,” among many others) with Phil Spector. The singer was Ron Dante, who had a successful studio career (he was also the singer for another studio-only band, the Cuff Links, whose song “Tracy” was on the charts at the same time as “Sugar, Sugar”). Even if you think this is dreadfully sappy, Ron Dante is the first one who sang the phrase that inspired Def Leppard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Sg5CdItQwo

Dante even provided the vocals for Betty and Veronica, singing songs like “Jingle Jangle” in falsetto.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUsHC7OYOtA

The Archies might be the most memorable of a lot of similar projects, which were given the collective term “bubblegum,” songs so light and sweet they could resist even an attempt by the great Wilson Pickett to inject them with a little soul. Try as he might, he doesn’t sound like he’s hungry — at least not for sugar.