THE ARCHIES ROCK THE HOUSE... AND YOUR BOOKSHELF... IN THEIR FIRST COMIC BOOK RETROSPECTIVE!

Back in the 1960s, renowned record producer Don Kirschner was one of the driving forces behind the band The Monkees. The Monkees were put together as a response to the popularity of The Beatles, and were given a TV show whose style was a combination of Beatles' movies like "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help," with the madcap lunacy of such Marx Brothers' classics as "Duck Soup" and "A Night at the Opera." The Monkees' TV show was a big hit, and they naturally spun off a successful recording career as well, placing many songs into the Top 10. Originally, Kirschner presented The Monkees with songs written by other writers to record.  However, little by little, they started to write and record their own songs, and eventually wanted to do original material altogether. When Kirschner asked them to record a song from one of his stable of writers called "Sugar Sugar," The Monkees refused, and parted ways with Kirschner.

Meanwhile, inspired by the runaway success of guitar-and-vocal groups like the Beatles, Byrds, Beach Boys and yes, The Monkees, The Archies band made their comic book debut in a 1967 issue of “Life with Archie.”  But that was only the beginning. 

As Kirschner's search for a band to replace The Monkees continued, he noticed his child reading a comic book featuring "The Archies" band.  It struck Kirschner that comic book characters couldn't give him a hard time by refusing to record the songs of others, so he made a deal with the publishers of Archie Comics and put together a band of studio musicians and dubbed them "The Archies."

Simultaneously, Archie Comics was in negotiations with the Filmation animation studio to start a series of Saturday morning Archie cartoons. It was decided to have The Archies band in the cartoons as well. THE ARCHIE SHOW premiered on the CBS network on September 14, 1968. An ARCHIES album followed shortly thereafter and the hit single, "Sugar Sugar," became the top-selling single of 1969. The rest, as they say, is musical history!

Now fans can relive that history with some of The Archies' most tuneful tales with THE ARCHIES: GREATEST HITS, VOLUME ONE.  This handsome edition features painstaking restoration from original publishing elements, and a special foreword by Ron Dante, the famed singing voice of Archie and a successful singer-songwriter, musician and producer of such multi-platinum acts as Barry Manilow, Cher and Pat Benatar.  It's music to any Archie fan's ears! 

THE ARCHIES: GREATEST HITS VOLUME ONE
Shipping Date: December 3rd, 2008
On Sale at Comic Specialty Shops: December 10th, 2008
On Sale on Newsstands: December 23rd, 2008
96-page, full color squarebound paperback
ISBN #:  978-1-879794-37-5
Old ISBN #: 1-879-794-37-3
$9.95 US.

I remember that one of the networks (I think it was ABC) started a weekly music show around the time of The Archies and promised that the show would feature the bands that had the number 1 hit for each week.  The show didn't count on "Sugar Sugar" topping the charts week after week.  What would the show do?  The Archies didn't exist! For awhile the show just ran the cartoon "Sugar Sugar" segment.  Then they had a live-action comedy skit about people at a dance that ran while "Sugar Sugar" played.

That barefoot Betty looks hot. ;-)

That groovy chick Betty!  She's so natural, man.  Like totally groovy and hip, man.

Maybe there's some sort of guerrilla advertising going on, but, I've heard "Sugar, Sugar" quite a few times in recent weeks, once on t.v., once in a Wal-Mart, even Sunday in one of the stores at Universal!!

History repeats itself very selectively.

VERY true, especially with all the recent postings of updated versions.