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Most '60s bubblegum groups were faceless studio concoctions, made up of hired professionals and given nominal group identities after the fact.
The Archies made no pretense of being a real band in the first place -- their music, including the smash hit "Sugar, Sugar," was "performed" by the animated TV cartoon characters spun off from Archie comics. In reality, of course, they were a studio concoction made up of hired professionals (most notably lead singer
Ron Dante), but in this case, they weren't technically faceless.
The Archies were created by promoter Don Kirshner, who was coming off a major success as the creator of
the Monkees. In late 1967, Kirshner was hired as music supervisor for CBS' new Saturday morning cartoon The Archie Show, which was to feature a new original song every week. He immediately brought on producer
Jeff Barry, who with
Ellie Greenwich had formed one of the preeminent songwriting teams of the girl-group era (
Greenwich also sang on several
Archies records). Kirshner's original choice for lead singer was
Kenny Karen, but
Barry brought in
Ron Dante, an experienced session singer who'd fronted
the Detergents' novelty parody "Leader of the Laundromat";
Dante had met
Barry at a
Neil Diamond session, and had previously cut promos for Kirshner.
Dante won the job, and
Barry hired Jeannie Thomas as the group's female vocalist. When the TV show debuted, it was a hit, and the first
Archies single, "Bang Shang-a-Lang," nearly made the Top 20 in late 1968.
Shortly thereafter,
Barry hired songwriter/backing vocalist
Andy Kim, and replaced Thomas with
Toni Wine.
Barry and
Kim co-wrote "Sugar, Sugar," which became a breakout smash in 1969; it topped the charts for four weeks, sold over three million copies in the U.S. alone, and wound up as Billboard's number one song of the year. Meanwhile, the TV show was expanded to a full hour, and
Dante enjoyed a simultaneous Top Ten hit during "Sugar, Sugar"'s run, thanks to his lead vocal on
the Cufflinks' "Tracy." The follow-up, "Jingle Jangle," reached the Top Ten, but from there
the Archies' chart success tailed off quickly. Their last Top 40 hit came in the spring of 1970 with "Who's Your Baby?"; the same year,
Donna Marie replaced
Toni Wine.
However, by the end of 1970
Barry left
the Archies to pursue other projects, and stories detailing the group's breakup named their primary personnel for the first time. Their final
Barry-produced single was released in early 1971, although "A Summer Prayer for Peace" became a hit in South Africa later that summer.
Ron Dante embarked on a short-lived solo career before moving into record production, and found substantial success as
Barry Manilow's producer throughout the '70s; he also returned to singing on commercial jingles.
Andy Kim went on to score a substantial solo hit in 1974 with "Rock Me Gently."
In 2008,
Ron Dante revived the
Archies name, brought in two vocalists to play Betty and Veronica (Danielle van Zyl and Kelly-Lynn), and released The Archies Christmas Party album on the Fuel 2000 label. Right around that time,
Dante, who by now owned the rights to the original recordings, oversaw the reissue on CD of all the band's original albums. In 2016, Goldenlane Records reissued all five
Archies albums under the title
Sugar, Sugar: The Complete Albums Collection. ~ Steve Huey