#Who wrote sugar sugar archies series#

, just behind the Beatles’ “Get Back.” In the U.K., it ended up at No. 1 single of the year in the States, according to Billboard. The song, co-written by a young Canadian lad named Andy Kim and Brill Building producer/songwriter extraordinaire Jeff Barry, and first released on by the Calendar Records label, wound up becoming the No. singles chart - for four weeks and eight weeks, respectively - as of Sept. 13, a half-century since it simultaneously did the same on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and the official U.K. 1 on the RPM 100 in Canada and stayed there for three weeks as of this coming Sept. It will be 50 years since “Sugar, Sugar” hit No. And swiftly send them back to Omicron Persei 8 with the hook lodged in their lizard brains for life, satisfied that now they’ve got it. If the fate of the world hinged on a quick demonstration of the essential meaning and the indefatigable power of pop music, “Sugar, Sugar” is the jam you play for the invaders. The ageless Archies jam is like a master class in precision popcraft jammed into just two minutes and 47 seconds: exuberantly joyful, simple but not too simple and almost debilitating in its catchiness. Why, you reach for “Sugar, Sugar,” of course. And, finally, these releases are taken to retail via the company’s Hep Cat distribution arm and via Navarre Corporation.It’s an unlikely scenario, granted, but suppose hostile aliens landed on the front steps of the Canadian Parliament demanding to know the meaning of the word “pop” or else they reduce our cities to ashes. Artists on the label include Sammy Davis Jr., the Electric Prunes, Stonewall Jackson, the Kingston Trio, the Four Freshmen, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin, the dB’s and the Incredible String Band. The Collectors’ Choice Music label consists of over 600 titles licensed from all the major labels and across all genres. The company’s mail order catalog circulates about 5 million copies a year, while the website ( ) is the only full-service website dedicated to oldies. But when we think of Andy Kim, we prefer to look back to the classic era of the 45 RPM record, the final but still vital days of the Brill Building, and of course a double dosage of sugar.Ĭollectors’ Choice Music is the world’s leading source for reissues, with a mail-order catalog, a website, a record label and a distributor all dedicated to bringing consumers music of the past, music that is increasingly underrepresented at retail. In the ‘80s, he re-emerged as Baron Longfellow with two enigmatic albums. And the magic he had captured with Jeff Barry at Steed was not to be surpassed. And Ron Dante, the voice of “Sugar Sugar,” appeared on Kim’s hit “Rainbow Ride,” remembered for its anti-drug message.Īfter Steed rode off into the sunset, Kim signed with Capitol Records and released one more hit, “Rock Me Gently” (1974), but by then the landscape of pop music had changed. “Be My Baby,” penned by Barry with then-wife and co-writer Ellie Greenwich, would go on to be a hit once more per decade in the hands of Dave Edmunds in the ‘70s and the Ramones in the ‘80s.

#Who wrote sugar sugar archies series#

In the spring of 1968, “Baby How’d We Ever Get This Way” charted a respectable #21 on Billboard’s pop chart, only to be bested by a series of two Ronettes remakes: “Baby I Love You” (#9, 1969) and “Be My Baby” (#17, 1970). Thus began one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, which in turn led to Kim’s hit singles and albums for Steed, which are widely regarded as the last, glorious gasp of the Brill Building sound. It was another era, to be sure.Īndy Kim, the man with the magic pipes, was born Andre Youakim in Montreal and at age 16 arrived in New York, where he played a song for his Brill Building hero Jeff Barry. All albums except for Andy Kim (which was on Uni Records) were originally released on Steed Records, which was founded in 1967 by songwriter/producer Barry as a division of Jeff Barry Enterprises. The Archies, after all, consisted of Archie, Jughead, Reggie, Betty and Veronica, right?Ĭollectors’ Choice Music on July 18 will re-release four Andy Kim LPs via two loaded CDs: How’d We Ever Get This Way mates with Rainbow Ride to document Kim’s 1968-69 output, while Baby I Love You is conjoined with the eponymous Andy Kim. Yet the fans never saw the scaffolding behind the scenes. Although Kim had many hits under his own name (“How’d We Ever Get This Way,” “Baby I Love You,” “Rock Me Gently” and “So Good Together,” to name a few), he co-wrote (with Jeff Barry) the Archies’ mega-hit “Sugar Sugar,” which sold 6 million 45 RPM units.

Andy Kim has sold millions of records, but most people are under the impression he sold mere hundreds of thousands.