A set of studio musicians were assembled by Don Kirshner in 1968 to perform various songs. The most famous is "Sugar, Sugar", written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim, which went to #1 on the pop chart in 1969 and earned the group a gold record (in fact, in Billboard magazine's Hot 100, it was ranked as the number one song of that year, the only time a fictional band has ever claimed Billboard's annual Hot 100 top-spot). Other Top Forty songs recorded by The Archies include "Who's Your Baby?" (U.S. #40), "Bang-Shang-A-Lang" (U.S. #22), and "Jingle Jangle" (U.S. #10). Kirshner had previously produced The Monkees' records, had offered "Sugar, Sugar" to them, but was ultimately fired over creative differences with the band and a subsequent contract dispute. He created The Archies as a "virtual band" so that he would have complete control over the music. [2]
Male vocals for the fictional Archies group were provided by The Cuff Links' lead singer Ron Dante and female duet vocals were provided by Toni Wine. Wine, who was only paid for the recording session and quit the group when the song became a huge hit, was succeeded in 1970 by Donna Marie, who in turn was replaced on the final recordings by Merle Miller. The only Archies song not to feature Ron Dante on lead was 1971's "Love Is Living In You," sung by Richie Adams. The last single released 1972 was "Strangers in the Morning;" its B-side song was "Plum Crazy."
Jeff Barry, Andy Kim, Susan Morse, Joey Levine, Maeretha Stewart, Bobby Bloom and Leslie Miller contributed background vocals at various times, with Barry contributing his trademark bass voice (portrayed as being sung by Jughead in the cartoon) on cuts such as "Jingle Jangle," "Rock 'n' Roll Music", "A Summer Prayer For Peace" (which hit #1 in South Africa in 1971) and "You Little Angel, You." Musicians on Archies records included guitarist Hugh McCracken, bassists Chuck Rainey and Joey Macho, keyboard player Ron Frangipane and drummers Buddy Saltzman and Gary Chester.
Most of the Archies' songs were produced, written or co-written by Neil Goldberg & Jeff Barry. [3] The following list of 31 titles (being the beloved 'Giant Jukebox' songs from the 'Archies Funhouse' 1970 TV shows, featuring 'Mr Factory', the first ecology song to make major airwaves), were all written, arranged, directed and produced in the studio, solely by Neil Brian Goldberg, who is still grateful to Jeff Barry for giving him the deal, (part of which was for Nancy Barry's name to appear on each song). Neil Goldberg played rhythm guitar and was session leader on all tracks. Neil also sang background on a number of these tracks. [4]
The Archies' records were initially released on the Calendar Records label, but the name was shortly thereafter changed to Kirshner Records.
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