The Archies ~ Sugar Sugar 1969 Bubblegum Purrfection Version

The popularity of bubblegum pop started with pre-teens and teenagers who were buying records like crazy in the late 60's. The cardinal rule for pop songs was the shorter, the better, since you could play more songs that were 2:30 than 3:00 long in an hour. How did bubblegum get started? Music was being created by artists and producers on an assembly line process that Motown defined and refined. The music tracks were done to perfection and just about anybody could have put their vocals down and had a hit with that song. The catchphrase for Motown was "The Sound Of Young America" and it was then that production took a lead role and artists seemed to take a back seat. Motown properly promoted their artists by creating indelible personas in The Supremes, Martha & The Vandellas, Four Tops and The Temptations. The singers could replace each other and often did in the house of Motown. For every #1 hit single, there were probably a dozen other versions by other Motown artists that never saw the light of day and put away in the library. The idea was to pit artist against artist to see who could come up with the best version, elevating the song to stratospheric heights. Bubblegum as a genre is described as " pop music contrived and marketed to appeal to pre-teens and teenagers, is produced in an assembly-line process, driven by producers, often using unknown singers and has an upbeat sound." It gots its name from producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz who distilled the target audience of teenyboppers down to a common trait, chewing bubblegum. Neil Bogart, an executive at Buddah Records grabbed that idea and ran with it turning it into a viable genre and a record label's dream. When I was a kid, these singles were often imprinted on cereal boxes on a thin layer of acetate you could cut out and play on your record player. The Lemon Pipers 1968 "Green Tambourine" is acknowledged as being the first bubblegum hit, and then 1910 Fruitgum Company, Ohio Express and The Archies. TV was broadcasting an animated version of the Archie comic books, with the idea of the characters forming a band and having a new song debut with every episode. Writers Jeff Barry and Andy Kim were recruited to make words and music for The Archies and session vocalist Ron Dante became the voice of Archie, with Toni Wine vocalizing as Veronica and Betty. The song was put down on tape and released July 26, 1969 and eight weeks later it was the most played song in the nation and stayed there for four weeks. Dante did not want to stay faceless and while working a session with Melissa Manchester and Valerie Simpson, met Barry Manilow who wrote the jingle for the product they were extolling called Tomboy. Dante ended up producing Manilow's first #1 single, "Mandy". The sound of bubblegum pop continued on with The Partridge Family, "I Think I Love You", Dawn "Knock Three Times", The Cowsills "Indian Lake", The Jackson Five "ABC", The Osmonds "One Bad Apple" are prime examples. Disco became a producers realm, in the same way that bubblegum was and there were just as many if not more throwaway songs with faceless singers who put their efforts into one memorable song and then disappeared without a trace.

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