The Archies

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The Archies are a group of adolescent fictional characters of the Archie universe, a garage band founded by Archie Andrews, Reggie Mantle, and Jughead Jones.Image:The archies.gif

Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge later also joined the group.

The Archies play a variety of contemporary popular music, consistent with the era in which the comic is drawn. They seem to have a preference for rock and roll, however.

The roles the teens play in the band:

Every member sings vocals, with Jughead handling the bass voice on a few tracks.

In conjunction with the animated series, The Archie Show, a set of studio musicians were assembled by former Monkees executive producer, 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?," "Bang-Shang-A-Lang," and "Jingle Jangle." Their antiwar protest single "A Summer Prayer For Peace" was an unlikely South African chart-topper in 1971. (Writer/producer Jeff Barry can be heard in the spoken parts on this track along with lead vocalist Ron Dante.)

Most of the Archies' songs were produced, written or co-written by Jeff Barry, who masterminded many of the top hits of the '60s, including The Shangri-Las' "Remember (Walkin' In The Sand)" and "Leader Of The Pack," The Dixie Cups' "Chapel Of Love" and "Iko Iko", Neil Diamond's "Cherry, Cherry," The Monkees' "I'm a Believer" and "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You," and Andy Kim's "Baby, I Love You". Mr. Barry was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1991.

Male vocals for the fictional Archies group were provided by Ron Dante (later the producer of Barry Manilow) and female duet vocals were provided by Toni Wine, composer of the Top Ten hits "Candida" and "A Groovy Kind Of Love." Wine 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," believed to be sung by Phil Cody. Jeff Barry, Susan Morse, Joey Levine, Maeretha Stewart, Ellie Greenwich, Bobby Bloom and Leslie Miller contributed background vocals at various times, with Jeff contributing his trademark bass voice ("sung" by Jughead on the cartoon) on cuts such as "Jingle Jangle" 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.de:The Archies sv:The Archies

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