1969, Sugar Sugar by The Archies was at No.1 on the UK singles chart. The single became the longest running one hit wonder in the UK with eight weeks at the top of the charts. So as the decade came to an end, 1969 gave us a brilliant diverse mix of chart toppers on both sides of the Atlantic. We had Marvin Gaye with I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Sly & the Family Stone - Everyday People, The Beatles who were in reality no longer together gave us Get Back., The Ballard Of John & Yoko (with just John and Paul playing on the record) and the double A side hit Come Together / Something, (in my opinion George Harrisons finest song). They keep coming - The Rolling Stones had hit a new peak with Honky Tonk Women, Elvis sang about his Suspicious Minds, and Motown rounded up the end of the decade with two timeless classics - The Temptations, I Cant Get Next To You and Diana Ross with her Supremes had Someday Well Be Together. Come on now, stick all those in your iTunes and make a playlist! I almost forgot to mention the one hit wonders Zager and Evans, who looked into the future with In The Year 2525, The 5th Dimension mini epic Aquarius / Let The Sunshine, Tommy Roe went Dizzy and in the UK Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg got into trouble with Je TAime... Moi Non Plus. The song culminates in orgasm sounds by Serges then girlfriend Jane Birkin: mostly because of this, the song was banned from radio and TV across Europe, but it didnt stop it topping the charts. So, add all the above to your mix on iTunes, switch to random play, close you eyes and drift back to 1969. Hang on! I forgot one. Possible the best bubble-gum song ever, by a group who didnt even exist. A song, which if you believe the rumours, was turned down by The Monkees, who thought it, was too cheesy! Cheesy? You most be joking, this is the sweetest song ever - yes Im taking about the song that spent 8 weeks at the top of the charts in the UK, and 4 in the US. The Archies - Sugar Sugar. Written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim who between them have penned so many hits. Canadian born Kim later scored the multi million selling hit Rock Me Gently. Jeff Barry on the other hand - with his wife Ellie Greenwich became the Lennon and McCartney hit-making team youve never heard of. The number of hits these two have had a hand in writing is unbelievable. Try this lot - Tell Laura I Love Her, Da Doo Ron Ron, Then He Kissed Me, Be My Baby, Baby, I Love You, Iko Iko, Leader of the Pack, River Deep, Mountain High. Barry also produced hits for The Monkees, Neil Diamond, Glen Campbell and more. The Archies were the product of a group of studio musicians managed by Don Kirshner. Ron Dantes lead vocals were accompanied by those of Toni Wine (who sang the line Im gonna make your life so sweet), and Andy Kim. Together they provided the voices of the Archies using multitracking. Sugar Sugar was the follow-up to Bang-Shang-a-Lang, which none of us remember. When Sugar Sugar was initially released, Kirshner had promotion men play it for radio station execs without telling them the name of the group and only after most of the DJs liked the song were they told that it was performed by a cartoon group. Ill leave you with some trivia: Sugar, Sugar is also considered to be the most produced recording ever after the breakfast cereal company Post Cereal placed millions of the records on the back of their Super Sugar Crisp cereal boxes. The song lists at #63 on Billboards Greatest Songs of All Time. youtube/watch?v=h9nE2spOw_o
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 21:38:27 +0000
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