Mourn Archie Andrews with the Archies’ Top 10

It’s happenin’ folks! The unthinkable!

Today, in Life With Archie issue #36, the perennially-youthful all-American comic hero, Archie Andrews, will meet his end taking a bullet for his friend Kevin Keller. It’s a sad day for Archie fans out there like myself, but also a good time to reflect on what the character means to us and why. For me, so much of my love of all things Archie has to do with the music. The music you say? Yeah! Don’t you know that Archie and his pals “played” in a very popular band in the late-60s/early-70s called the Archies?

But wait a second… if Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead and Reggie are fictional comic book characters, how did they have a band? Well, behind the Archies was some of the Sixties’ brightest songwriters and session musicians. Leading the whole operation was brilliant Brill Building hit-maker, producer, and “Man With The Golden Ear” Don Kirshner.

Before the Archies, Kirshner was, among many other things, the music director for the Monkees, responsible for creating the group’s early sound, and selecting hits like “Last Train to Clarksville” and “I’m a Believer.” Although Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith were, at the time, merely four actors cast to play a band on a TV show, they grew to want artistic control over their music, too. The two sides of this musical battle grew heated, culminating with Nesmith driving his fist through a hotel room wall in his dislike of Kirshner. Don Kirshner was let go and, around a year later, the Archies debuted.

With a popular Saturday-morning cartoon to hype the songs, songwriting luminaries like Andy Kim and Jeff Barry (writer, with Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector, of “Da Doo Run Run” and “Be My Baby”) on board, and a band that couldn’t possibly rebel or quit because they were cartoon characters (brilliant!), Kirshner struck gold with a #1 hit in the summer of 1969, “Sugar Sugar.”

But more on that important song later. In honor of the Archies’ eponymous figurehead, Archie Andrews, and his heroic death, here are 10 deep tracks, hits and all-around bubblegum ditties from one of America’s favorite pseudo-bands!

10) “Sunshine” from Sunshine (1969)

A wonderfully-breezy later track from the band, and a real underrated gem of a summer song. Makes you wonder, if it had not been recorded by a cartoon band, would it have charted higher than #57? I think so. And dig the soulful tribal breakdown at the end!

9) “Mr Factory” from Sunshine (1969)

A personal favorite of Archies’ lead singer Ron Dante, “Mr. Factory” attempts to educate the kiddies about important Sixties environmental issues. It’s a simple, yet effective, ballad asking the title character (big, bad business, of course) if he cares whether the children have any air, a question as sadly important now as it was over 40 years ago.

8) “Truck Driver”  from The Archies (1968)

A driving (no pun intended), bluesy number featuring Archie’s attempts to find his girl, who is traveling across the country. Lots of fun rhymes with different names of American cities, including the stanza, “She might have gone to New York City / Skies are grey but the lights are pretty,” which sounds suspiciously like a certain Guns N’ Roses song. Axl Rose was six in 1968. I wonder if he was collecting cereal box records?

7) “A Summer Prayer for Peace” from Sunshine (1969)

When creatives behind the cartoon band pushed the limits on what bubblegum music could do, say, and accomplish, what resulted was this legit anti-war plea. In 1971, this eerie and beautiful song hit #1 in South Africa and Scandinavia, where they know what’s up.

6) “Together We Two” from This is Love (1971)

A snappy and airy underrated throw-away love ballad from songwriters Jeff Barry and Andy Kim that uses the lyric “lee-de-lee-dee” to great effect. Donna Marie replaces Toni Wine on Veronica’s vocals on this track and does a great job. This song is also notable for it’s gentle use of kettle drum, giving this track a bit of a lite Caribbean vibe.

5) “Bang-Shang-A-Lang” from The Archies (1968)

The first track to chart for the group, coming in at #22, this song, propelled by a tick-tock beat and a jangly rhythm breakdown is a bubblegum treat. The build between the verses and choruses definitely ended up laying down the template for the hits that followed.

4) “Feelin’ So Good (S.K.O.O.B.Y.-D.O.O.)” from Everything’s Archie (1969)

Although this song is about a girl called “Skooby Doo,” it actually predates the famous cartoon Great Dane by a year. Charting at #53, it begins with a beautiful, layered vocal build and then settles into a laid-back vibe evoking a perfect Sunday spring afternoon. The bridge then gets into proto-glam drum territory that would later be explored by “bubbleglam” acts like the Bay City Rollers. Lyrical highlight: “Sunday after mass / Picnic in the grass / Diggin’ Mama Cass with Skooby Doo.” Can you think of a better way to make the hippie-youth culture of Sixties America seem more squeaky clean? I didn’t think so.

3) “Get on the Line” from Jingle Jangle (1969)

The Archies’ ultimate peace and love anthem. It’s easy to imagine a universe where this song was so popular it stopped the Vietnam War dead in it’s tracks. The Archies don’t just ask, they order us to “Get on the line (hey!) get on the line for LOVE!” Oh, if only world peace were as simple as this song makes it out to be. This song was later covered by an early version of the Sweet; that version is crunchier, but no less enduring.

2) “Sugar Sugar” from Everything’s Archie (1969)

Oh man. How can you not love this song? Perfect bass line, rhythm guitar, handclaps — and that keyboard hook! AHHHH! The interplay between Ron Dante (Archie) and Toni Wine (Veronica) definitely builds some of the sexual tension felt not only within the band, but since the comics hit stores in 1941. The song builds and builds and drives and drives to the upper echelons of sunshiney cheeriness, becoming one of pop’s great singalong moments. No wonder it’s the Archies’ lasting legacy and one of the greatest bubblegum songs ever written.

1) “Jingle Jangle” from Jingle Jangle (1969)

As much as I love “Sugar Sugar,” I love “Jingle Jangle” more. Why? Simply put, it takes everything that makes “Sugar Sugar” great and turns the groove up — way up — via a driving chorus of “la la las,” snappy verses and a chance for Toni Wine to really do her thing. And then, just when you think it can’t get any better, there’s that Kim/Barry breakdown at the end! For the record, that’s Dante on Archie’s lead “whoah-come-ons,” Barry on Jughead’s bass “whoah-come-ons” that follow, and Wine on Veronica’s “baby-get-it-togethers.” If that doesn’t make you move, I guess you don’t love nice and wonderful things like love, joy and the Archies. Oh Archie Andrews, you bubblegum, garage-rock hippie, you’ll be missed!

(All images © Archie Comics.)

Louie Pearlman

Louie Pearlman is a comedic performer, songwriter, producer and pop culture writer living in NYC. He loves bubblegum music and punk in all its forms -- his favorite band is Talking Heads, but the Archies are a close second or third. You can check out his current projects at LouiePearlman.com, come see a show, and say “hi” after!