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Bubblegum Music
On 14 September 1968, The Archies, a Saturday morning TV
cartoon show, made its debut on CBS in America. The show was a Don
Kirshner creation based around a high school rock band in a
popular comic book, from which hit singles were to be spun off
(following the pattern Kirshner evolved with The
Monkees). Cynics
suggested that the mogul hoped to avoid the personality clashes
which soured his grand design for The Monkees by ensuring that
this group consisted only of animated drawings.
The Archies field of musical endeavour
was 'Bubblegum' - A term
coined by two New York record producers, Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff
Katz (owners of Super-K Records). Kasenetz and Katz saw a gap in
the market for uncomplicated danceable pop with simple lyrics - a
complete reaction to the progressive and psychedelic rock scenes.
The hit they wrote for Ohio Express, Yummy Yummy Yummy
(featuring the lyric "Yummy yummy yummy, I got love in my
tummy") was not untypical.
The 1968 Archies' hit Bang-Shang-A-Lang (which opened
the TV cartoon show) was recorded with session singer Ron Dante on
lead vocals. His voice became identified with The Archies
sound,
and during the peak of "Archies-mania", the Post Cereal
company issued Archies' records on the back of cereal boxes, and
an Archies restaurant even opened in Joliet, Illinois. The group
only ever played live once, at a charity event at St Theresa's
Church in Kennilworth, New Jersey, with Dante and Donna Marie
performing Sugar, Sugar and Who's Your Baby?
Kasenetz and Katz were equally responsible for Simon Says, the
1910 Fruitgum Company's pre-teen pop smash based on a children's
game. When Simon Says passed the million sales mark
on March 5 1968, it confirmed that Bubblegum had really arrived.
Despite accusations that Super-K acts like The 1989 Musical
Marching Zoo and Lieutenant Garcia's Magic Music Box were fronts
for groups of studio session players, the label prospered.
Super-K took over New York's Carnegie Hall on June 8 1968 for a
promotional concert at which the label's entire roster combined to
form the 46-strong Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus. In
1969, Kasenetz-Katz Associates reported an 85% sales increase over
the past 12 months, earning $25 million and scoring 25 hit
singles. There was no sign of the Bubblegum hits slowing either,
and Sugar Sugar by The Archies
hit the US Number 1
slot in September 1969 (and returned once again, as a dance
novelty, in 1987).
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The Archies
The Brady Bunch
Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus
Lieutenant Garcia's Magic Music Box
The
Monkees
1910 Fruitgum
Company
1989 Musical Marching Zoo
Ohio
Express
The Partridge Family
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