Today in Music (1969): The Archies top the chart with “Sugar Sugar”

Sugar, Sugar The Archies

Writer(s): Jeff Barry, Andy Kim (see lyrics here) Released: May 24, 1969 First Charted: July 19, 1969 Peak: 14 US, 14 CB, 143 HR, 22 AC, 18 UK, 13 CN, 5 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 1.02 UK, 6.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 2.0 radio, 142.46 video, 442.26 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: John I. Goldwater created the Archies comic strip in 1942. In 1968, Filmation Studios created a Saturday morning cartoon based on the strip. Don Kirshner, who’d helmed the Monkees, was hired to supervise music for the series. He hired Jeff Barry, who’d produced “I’m a Believer” for the Monkees, to write songs. Along with Ellie Greenwich, Barry wrote hits such as the Crystals’ “Da Doo Ron Ron,” the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby,” the Dixie Cups’ “Chapel of Love,” the Shangri-Las’ “Leader of the Pack,” and Manfred Mann’s “Do Wah Diddy Diddy.” Co-writer Andy Kim would land a #1 in 1974 with “Rock Me Gently.” To perform the song, Kirshner assembled a group of studio musicians. Ron Dante sang lead with accompanying vocals from Kim and Toni White. While working with Kirshner’s Aldon Music, Dante sang demos on multiple songs written by legendary songwriting teams like Gerry Goffin & Carole King, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, and Neil Sedaka & Howard Greenfield. He tried to launch a solo career in 1968 with no success. When Kirshner asked Dante to sing anonymously for scale on the Archies’ records, Dante agreed. FB The actual performers on the song were kept a secret. As Wine said, it was a trivia question for years about “what group never appeared together, never went on the road together, never interviewed together…and had #1 song?” SF In fact, it went to #1 in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, and the UK. It spent more weeks (22) on the Billboard charts in 1969 than any other song SF and was named song of the year by the magazine. Dante ended up having two simultaneous top-5 hits with “Sugar Sugar” and “Tracy” by the Cuff Links. He also went on to produce Barry Manilow’s 1975 #1 hit “Mandy” and Pat Benatar’s 1979 top-40 hit “Heartbreaker.” Meanwhile, critics weren’t particularly kind to “Sugar Sugar” although Dante and Barry defended the bubblegum sound as having a large audience. The song gained some credibility when Wilson Pickett covered it in 1970 and took it to #25. FB Resources: FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 258. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 12/9/2020; last updated 5/17/2025.

Jeff Barry - Happy 80th Birthday! His Top 30 Songs

Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, image from Cue Castanents! Blog

Jeff Barry Top 30 Songs

Pop singwriter Jeff Barry was born Joel Adleberg on 4/3/1938 in Brooklyn, NY. He often worked with his wife, Ellie Greenwich, as one of the famous Brill Building songwriting teams. Their song, “Be My Baby,” is featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Rock Era, 1954-1999. For a complete list of this act’s DMDB honors, check out the DMDB Music Maker Encyclopedia entry. Click here to see other acts’ best-of lists.

Awards:

Top 30 Songs Dave’s Music Database lists are determined by song’s appearances on best-of lists, appearances on compilations and live albums by the featured act, and songs’ chart success, sales, radio airplay, streaming, and awards. Songs which hit #1 on various charts are noted. (Click for codes to singles charts.) DMDB Top 1%: 1. Be My Baby (The Ronettes, 1963) #1 CB 2. Sugar, Sugar (The Archies, 1969) #1 US, CB, HR, UK, CN 3. River Deep, Mountain High (Ike & Tina Turner, 1966) DMDB Top 5%: 4. I Honestly Love You (Olivia Newton-John, 1974) #1 US, CB, HR, RR, AC, CN, AU 5. Chapel of Love (The Dixie Cups, 1964) #1 US, CB, HR, RB, CN 6. Da Doo Ron Ron (The Crystals, 1963) 7. Do Wah Diddy Diddy (Manfred Mann, 1964) #1 US, CB, HR, UK, CN 8. Leader of the Pack (The Shangri-La’s, 1964) #1 US, CB, HR, RB 9. Hanky Panky (Tommy James & the Shondells, 1966) #1 US, CB, HR, CN 10. Then He Kissed Me (The Crystals, 1963) DMDB Top 10%: 11. Tell Laura I Love Her (Ricky Valance, 1960) #1 UK DMDB Top 20%: 12. Take Me Home Tonight (Eddie Money with Ronnie Spector, 1986) #1 AR 13. Baby I Love You (The Ronettes, 1963) 14. I Can Hear Music (The Beach Boys, 1969) 15. A Fine Fine Boy (Darlene Love, 1963) 16. Teenage Sonata (Sam Cooke, 1960) 17. Jingle Jangle (The Archies, 1969) 18. Montego Bay (Bobby Bloom, 1970) Beyond the DMDB Top 20%: 19. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) (Darlene Love, 1963) 20. Little Boy (The Crystals, 1964) 21. Wait ‘Til My Bobby Gets Home (Darlene Love, 1963) 22. Not Too Young to Get Married (Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans, 1963) 23. I Got to Go Back and Watch That Little Girl Dance (The McCoys, 1966) 24. Nasty Girl (Nitty, 2004) #1 AU 25. I Have a Boyfriend (The Chiffons, 1963) 26. Chip Chip (Gene McDaniels, 1962) 27. All Grown Up (The Crystals, 1964) 28. Good Night Baby (The Butterflys, 1964) 29. Bang-Shang-A-Lang (The Archies, 1968) 30. Who’s Your Baby? (The Archies, 1970) Resources and Related Links: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Jeff Barry DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Ellie Greenwich Dave’s Music Database: “Acts’ Profile Pages and Best-of Lists” First posted 12/15/2019; last updated 6/5/2022.

Def Leppard hit #2 with “Pour Some Sugar on Me”

Pour Some Sugar on Me Def Leppard

Writer(s): Joe Elliott; Phil Collen; Rick Savage; Robert John "Mutt" Lange; Steve Clark (see lyrics here) Released: September 8, 1987 First Charted: September 19, 1987 Peak: 2 US, 12 CB, 11 RR, 25 AR, 18 UK, 22 CB, 26 AU, 8 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.4 UK, 0.9 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 137.9 video, 300.85 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The band were behind schedule in recording their Hysteria album, but producer Mutt Lange felt they still hadn’t nailed down a strong crossover hit. He was wrong on that point, considering the album sent four songs into the top 10 of the Billboard pop charts and had two more top-20 hits, but his instincts arguably produced the most important song of Def Leppard’s career. After Lange heard singer Joe Elliott playing a riff he’d developed on acoustic guitar, he thought it had the potential to be the hit he was seeking, saying, according to Elliott, “That’s the best hook I’ve heard in over five years.” SF When the rest of the band came back in the studio, they rolled their eyes when Elliott and Lange said they had a new song, but were sold once they heard it. SF Within two weeks – by far the fastest they’d worked on a song SF – it had been fleshed out into the final track recorded for the album. WK Elliott and Lange wrote separate lyrics for the song and then listened to each other’s contributions. Elliott cited several songs as inspiration. He said it was done in the style of T-Rex’s “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” SF and that it was partially inspired by the Run-D.M.C.’s version of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.” As he said, “All of a sudden, rock and rap did mix, so we wrote our own.” WK He’s also said the line “pour a little sugar on me, baby” from the Archies’ 1969 hit “Sugar Sugar” (the first record Elliott ever bought) was at least subconscious inspiration. SF “Pour Some Sugar on Me” didn’t end up as highest-charting song from Hysteria (“Love Bites” reached #1) nor was it the first single. It did, however, become their signature hit. WK It effectively had a year-long chart life, thanks to staggered appearances on various charts. It was first released in the UK in September 1987 as the second single from the Hysteria album after “Animal” in July. In the U.S., the song made its first appearance as an album cut on the mainstream rock chart in January 1988. However, it wasn’t released as an official single in America until April 1988, making it the fourth single after “Women” (August 1987), “Animal” (September 1987), and the title cut from the Hysteria album (January 1988). The song climbed the Billboard Hot 100 for three months, eventually peaking at #2, held back from the top spot by Richard Marx’s “Hold on to the Nights.” The success of the song pushed the Hysteria album to #1 after it had been out more than a year. In 1991, MTV ranked “Pour Some Sugar on Me” the #1 video of all time. In 2006, VH1 ranked it the #2 song of the ‘80s. WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Robert John “Mutt” Lange SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/27/2020; last updated 10/28/2022.