60s bubblegum was the creation of anonymous session musicians performing compositions by Brill Building graduates. Hits were often performed by the exact same musicians under various saccharine monikers. In that respect, The Archies were really no different from the pack. What was groundbreaking was that for The Archies, the first entirely cartoon rock band, artificiality was a selling point. Mogul Don Kirshner’s mission on the heels of his success with The Monkees was to supervise the music on “The Archie Show”, a new addition to the CBS Saturday morning lineup. He brought on songwriters Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, an unstoppable team behind the 60s girl group wave. With session singers Ron Dante, Toni Wine and Andy Kim, a winning formula was in place. Barry and Kim collaborated on “Sugar, Sugar,” a breakout smash in 1969, Billboard’s number one song of that year. Ron Dante and Andy Kim had bubblegum hits with other passing bubblegum fancies, but nothing equaled the initial diabetic shock of “Sugar, Sugar”.

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