On behalf of those of us that were 8 years old in 1969 (and remember it well) this song was a "big hit as it rose to #1 and the top song of 1969". Ignore the comic book band - Don Kirschner had to use the Archies to put the song out there. I challenge anyone to sit down and try to write a hit pop song (as the man in the video indicates) only an extremely talented songwriter(s) who gets lucky can accomplish this task and Jeff Barry and Andy Kim pulled it off together with Ron Dante singing lead vocals with Andy Kim and Toni Wine (Veronica's part). They were the real Archies !
HaHa! That was me! I was 8 years old in 1969. Sugar Sugar was the very first record I ever bought. I played it over and over and over! Still one of my favorite songs of all time. Another favorite from 1969 was One by Three Dog Night.
I was about 10 and clearly recall sitting in front of the big old tv and watching the Archies play this song on their show and it was such a great great song and still one of my favorites. I recall at a school Christmas party i received an Archies record which was cool but didnt have Sugar sugar on it. I also recall another time getting The Partridge Familys Shopping Bag about 1972 and that was super cool too.
The "Sugar, Sugar" video was one of the music segments of "The Archie Comedy Hour" one of the Archie shows that's forever lost in the Filmation archives (but hopefully it will be unearthed).
I'm glad Don Kirshner created The Archies. "SUGAR SUGAR" hit Number One in the 1960s. Ron Dante, Toni White and the rest of the Archies have totally nailed it for sure. This song never gets old for me & I still love it since childhood. Thank you, Don Kirshner for giving us the Archies! A real legend & great music producer! Real groovy!
People are always going to vilify Don Kirshner due to how he treated the Monkees and initially forbade them to play their instruments on their records, but in terms of what he did that was good, he helped launch the careers of such singer-songwriters as Bobby Darin, Neil Sedaka, Carole King, and Neil Diamond; founded the music publishing company Aldon with Al Nevins (who played a significant role in shaping the Brill Building sound of the late '50s and '60s); and produced the TV concert show, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, in the '70s. So there! 😐
Yes but it wasn't 'Sugar, Sugar' that the band was offered since it wasn't even written at the time, not being written until 1969. It is rumoured that they were offered the song, but Monkees archival expert Andrew Sandoval suggested that the band may instead actually have been offered a tune called 'Sugar Man'. But with the passage of time the parties involved simply misremembered it as being 'Sugar, Sugar', in large part because it made a better anecdote. 'Sugar Man' was on the list of songs that Don Kirshner intended for the Monkees to record while 'Sugar, Sugar' was not.
If the Monkees HAD been offered Sugar Sugar, Micky probably would have sung it in 1969, and it would have been a huge hit for them. Understandable Mike would have punched a fist over assuming they'd perform some Sugar Man crap.
Regardless had the Monkees kept don they would of had that song as a hit when they desperately needed a hit in 1969. Also it could be possible don was right about the time. After all it takes while to get rights and produce a cartoon and get everything set 1969 is not long from when kirshner was fired
@@avalond1193 Don Kirshner wasn't the right person to ask about whether or not The Monkees were ever offered the song. Jeff Barry who cowrote the song is. Or possibly Andrew Sandoval since he is an expert on providing up to date information about the Monkees. If you check the list of songs that were on the Monkees' list of songs to add vocals to in early 1967, you'll find 'Sugar Man' (written by Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell) on the list. But not 'Sugar, Sugar' (written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim) Jeff Barry denies that the Monkees were ever offered the song, as it hadn't been written at the time they were said to have offered it. I believe that Don Kirshner was definitely fired at the right time. Because we likely wouldn't have gotten albums like Headquarters or Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, and Jones Limited. However, I do wish that Micky Dolenz would add his vocals to the seven remaining Kirshner-supervised tracks from January 1967. And have all 15 of the January 1967 tracks released as an album together.
Don Kirshner was a highly intelligent man. He was a music publisher. He knew the pop music industry backwards and forwards. He knew what would work and what wouldn't on everything he ever worked on. He was of Jewish background but he did not practice it. He was hired to produce a tv series called the Monkees back in the 60s. The show was based on "The Beatles." Kirshner knew what would work and would not work. The merchandising from the show made millions. Record albums sold off the charts. The show was popular for two years. It was all due to Kirshner. Again, he knew exactly what would work and would not work. However the four actors who played the members of the band got ahead of themselves. A couple of the actors could not play an instrument. Kirshner however made it look as though they could The actors in the show considered Kirshner to be brash. And it was either, "He goes or we'll go." So there was a putsch. Kirshner was canned. The result of him being kicked out was, the whole franchise fell apart shortly thereafter, the show was canceled and all record sales stopped. It came to a crashing end. The four actors no longer had the success they had when Kirshner was there. However Kirshner himself, had no problem finding work afterwards because people of higher minds realized his value and had more success and more shows. Kirshner died in 2012. He had been marred to the same woman for fifty years. He left a net worth of 50 million dollars to his widow and 2 children, so the guy obviously knew something. That was not the case for the four actors of the show. They all tried a musical career and it came to almost nothing. One does not make money in Hollywood unless one can deliver. I've seen this before where a key player of a business is dismissed. The result of such an action is, the company then falls apart and people lose their jobs as well as their income. I've also seen it result in nervous break downs, heart attacks, and illness for the people left behind along with serious amounts of regret about what they did.
By the time Kirshner was fired, the Monkees had pretty much run their course. His staying would probably not have helped much. The "happy together" pop sounds of the mid 1960s was being replaced by darker, more sophisticated popular music.
This is debatable to say the least. Kirshner continually found work after the show because of his expertise. After the show he went to work on the "The Archie TV series" and was able to make a song called "Sugar Sugar" a big hit. He thereafter continued to work because he could deliver of which the "The Four" could not.
@@2Uahojexcept don made the biggest hit in 1969 with sugar sugar the Monkees were already pretty much dead by then and it would of been a song to really save them. I love the Monkees but they sabotaged their own career they really needed don and even after don left the Monkees went back to having other people make their music for them again so what was point of ditching don.
@@TheORIGINALBrentTheGent This is great info. I always had a feeling that nobody in this drama of conflicting claims was lying. I prefer to assume that Don Kirshner simply got the two songs confused. I wonder if any of the unreleased Archies tracks that Ron Dante says exists will ever appear on UA-cam?
@@KCStuffedAnimal You solved that by finding the Copyright claim which decidedly puts "Sugar Sugar" in 1969. Besides, there's no guarantee that a Monkees version would have been a hit. The production, vocals and sound all would have been different. The Archies caught lightning in a bottle.
@@TheORIGINALBrentTheGent Incidentally, the song "Sugar Man" was copyrighted in 1967. Linzer and Randell recorded their own version for Columbia Records. Micky Dolenz could have made it it a big hit, for sure.
At 2:00 Mr. Barry says that "Archies record sales were based purely on the music..." Not quite! The animated series played along , like the Disney music hits.
Don Kirshner did not have a tv show until 1972 of june i know that wikipedia says that Don Kirshner started the show in September 27, 1973 because where i lived at the time i saw the show in june 1972 and then moved out in nov 1972 i was 14 at the time and these are the real people of the group the Archies ( Ron Dante Toni Wine Jeff Barry Donna Marie Bobby Bloom Chuck Rainey ) and the song "Sugar, Sugar", written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim and Andy Kim sang a lot of songs that he wrote and sang
MUSICAL MEMORIAL: PRODUCER/SONGWRITER DON KIRSHNER DIED ON THIS DAY, JANUARY 17, 2011, AT THE AGE OF 76. THE CAUSE OF DEATH WAS CARDIAC ARREST/HEART ATTACK. DON WAS BORN ON APRIL 17, 1934, IN BRONX, NEW YORK. MAY DON KIRSHNER REST IN HARMONY. FOR MORE INFO AND MEMORIALS, PLEASE JOIN MY GROUP AND VIEW MY UA-cam POSTS: TONY JAMS MUSICAL MEMORIALS 1950'S AND BEYOND. FACE BOOK PAGE: TONY JAMS MUSICAL MEMORIALS. THANK YOU.
Kirshner was very talented, but must have been tough to work with, as evidenced by his attitude here. The Monkees were right to turn it down - their hits were much better and more clever than "Sugar, Sugar" actually rivaling some Beatles songs in their quality (Clakesville, Believer, Daydream, Little Bit of, Words, etc.).
From interviews with Don Kirshner's music contractor, Artie Kaplan, Jeff Barry and Ron Dante who is very open with information, I think I've determined the musicians who played on "Sugar, Sugar": Hugh McCracken, Sal DiTroia, Andy Kim, guitars; Joe Mack, bass; Ron Frangipane, keyboards; Gary Chester, drums; Jeff Barry, tambourine; Ron Dante, lead and backing vocals; Toni Wine, Ray Stevens, handclapping and backing vocals. Toni Wine and Jeff Barry also contributed keyboards to the session and Artie Kaplan says he played a saxophone part that may be buried in the mix or that wasn't used.
I was 8 years old when I first in fell in love with this song !! I’m 60 now and I still love Sugar Sugar
Oh yea. Well I hated it.
Just joking.
I was too! Still one of my favorite songs. I also loved One by Three Dog Night.
Number 1 hit of 1969!🎶💜👍🏽
I'm so glad The Monkees didn't record Sugar Sugar.
But dont forget Micky Dolenz and Ron Dante were the two greatest voices in pop history, just sayin' 😂
Yeah, Nesmith and Tork became superstars after they turned it down \s
It's a great song, just not the Monkees' style. Good thing the Archies cut it instead.
I didn't realize Don Kirshner was the music supervisor for the short-lived sitcom, Love on a Rooftop. Yet there he is in the closing credits.
On behalf of those of us that were 8 years old in 1969 (and remember it well) this song was a "big hit as it rose to #1 and the top song of 1969". Ignore the comic book band - Don Kirschner had to use the Archies to put the song out there. I challenge anyone to sit down and try to write a hit pop song (as the man in the video indicates) only an extremely talented songwriter(s) who gets lucky can accomplish this task and Jeff Barry and Andy Kim pulled it off together with Ron Dante singing lead vocals with Andy Kim and Toni Wine (Veronica's part). They were the real Archies !
Bocephus could do it!
HaHa! That was me! I was 8 years old in 1969. Sugar Sugar was the very first record I ever bought. I played it over and over and over! Still one of my favorite songs of all time. Another favorite from 1969 was One by Three Dog Night.
Well said. From an 8 year old in 1969😊
Archies my favorite band and cartoon l really enjoy the Archies music 🎵🎶🎶 Sugar Sugar 😊😊😊❤❤❤
Good bubblegum rock. Good job Mr. Kirchner enjoyed your rock concert in the 1970,s
He even had His own label,first called "Calendar" in 1967 but two years later Renamed "Kirshner" Then jumped labels from RCA To CBS now SONY,in 1973.
I was about 10 and clearly recall sitting in front of the big old tv and watching the Archies play this song on their show and it was such a great great song and still one of my favorites. I recall at a school Christmas party i received an Archies record which was cool but didnt have Sugar sugar on it. I also recall another time getting The Partridge Familys Shopping Bag about 1972 and that was super cool too.
He's 100% right. If writing a catchy pop tune was easy, everyone would be doing it.
The "Sugar, Sugar" video was one of the music segments of "The Archie Comedy Hour" one of the Archie shows that's forever lost in the Filmation archives (but hopefully it will be unearthed).
Fortunately, the music videos for Jingle Jangle and You Know I Love You are also available, albeit in bad quality.
I was about 9 years old! And loved it.
I just FEELS sooo good! , like the most naturally flowing and infectious song of all time ,the king of X-Factors!
I'm glad Don Kirshner created The Archies. "SUGAR SUGAR" hit Number One in the 1960s. Ron Dante, Toni White and the rest of the Archies have totally nailed it for sure. This song never gets old for me & I still love it since childhood. Thank you, Don Kirshner for giving us the Archies! A real legend & great music producer! Real groovy!
Hey Floyd. I have a live version of Sugar. www.therockinrobinonline.com
People are always going to vilify Don Kirshner due to how he treated the Monkees and initially forbade them to play their instruments on their records, but in terms of what he did that was good, he helped launch the careers of such singer-songwriters as Bobby Darin, Neil Sedaka, Carole King, and Neil Diamond; founded the music publishing company Aldon with Al Nevins (who played a significant role in shaping the Brill Building sound of the late '50s and '60s); and produced the TV concert show, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, in the '70s.
So there! 😐
And Ron Dante, was great .. such a talent..
Lead singer on Sugar sugar..
That means, "The Archies" were the first Milli Vanilli
Until Jughead demanded artistic control!
🙆♂️
You didn’t mention that Ron Dante was the voice behind the record
Yes but it wasn't 'Sugar, Sugar' that the band was offered since it wasn't even written at the time, not being written until 1969. It is rumoured that they were offered the song, but Monkees archival expert Andrew Sandoval suggested that the band may instead actually have been offered a tune called 'Sugar Man'.
But with the passage of time the parties involved simply misremembered it as being 'Sugar, Sugar', in large part because it made a better anecdote. 'Sugar Man' was on the list of songs that Don Kirshner intended for the Monkees to record while 'Sugar, Sugar' was not.
C. Syde65 is that true? Cause tearin up my heart was intended for the backstreet boys but instead for nsync,
If the Monkees HAD been offered Sugar Sugar, Micky probably would have sung it in 1969, and it would have been a huge hit for them. Understandable Mike would have punched a fist over assuming they'd perform some Sugar Man crap.
@@zpozuniverse4562 It is true. Sorry for the extremely late response.
Regardless had the Monkees kept don they would of had that song as a hit when they desperately needed a hit in 1969. Also it could be possible don was right about the time. After all it takes while to get rights and produce a cartoon and get everything set 1969 is not long from when kirshner was fired
@@avalond1193 Don Kirshner wasn't the right person to ask about whether or not The Monkees were ever offered the song. Jeff Barry who cowrote the song is. Or possibly Andrew Sandoval since he is an expert on providing up to date information about the Monkees. If you check the list of songs that were on the Monkees' list of songs to add vocals to in early 1967, you'll find 'Sugar Man' (written by Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell) on the list. But not 'Sugar, Sugar' (written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim)
Jeff Barry denies that the Monkees were ever offered the song, as it hadn't been written at the time they were said to have offered it. I believe that Don Kirshner was definitely fired at the right time. Because we likely wouldn't have gotten albums like Headquarters or Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, and Jones Limited. However, I do wish that Micky Dolenz would add his vocals to the seven remaining Kirshner-supervised tracks from January 1967. And have all 15 of the January 1967 tracks released as an album together.
Don Kirshner was a highly intelligent man. He was a music publisher. He knew the pop music industry backwards and forwards.
He knew what would work and what wouldn't on everything he ever worked on. He was of Jewish background but he did not practice it.
He was hired to produce a tv series called the Monkees back in the 60s. The show was based on "The Beatles."
Kirshner knew what would work and would not work. The merchandising from the show made millions. Record albums sold off the charts.
The show was popular for two years. It was all due to Kirshner. Again, he knew exactly what would work and would not work.
However the four actors who played the members of the band got ahead of themselves. A couple of the actors could not play an instrument.
Kirshner however made it look as though they could
The actors in the show considered Kirshner to be brash. And it was either, "He goes or we'll go."
So there was a putsch. Kirshner was canned.
The result of him being kicked out was, the whole franchise fell apart shortly thereafter, the show was canceled and all record sales stopped. It came to a crashing end.
The four actors no longer had the success they had when Kirshner was there.
However Kirshner himself, had no problem finding work afterwards because people of higher minds realized his value and had more success and more shows.
Kirshner died in 2012. He had been marred to the same woman for fifty years.
He left a net worth of 50 million dollars to his widow and 2 children, so the guy obviously knew something.
That was not the case for the four actors of the show. They all tried a musical career and it came to almost nothing.
One does not make money in Hollywood unless one can deliver.
I've seen this before where a key player of a business is dismissed.
The result of such an action is, the company then falls apart and people lose their jobs as well as their income.
I've also seen it result in nervous break downs, heart attacks, and illness for the people left behind along with serious amounts of regret about what they did.
By the time Kirshner was fired, the Monkees had pretty much run their course. His staying would probably not have helped much. The "happy together" pop sounds of the mid 1960s was being replaced by darker, more sophisticated popular music.
This is debatable to say the least.
Kirshner continually found work after the show because of his expertise.
After the show he went to work on the "The Archie TV series" and was able to make a song called "Sugar Sugar" a big hit.
He thereafter continued to work because he could deliver of which the "The Four" could not.
Bill Haley and comets another tale like that!
@@2Uahojexcept don made the biggest hit in 1969 with sugar sugar the Monkees were already pretty much dead by then and it would of been a song to really save them. I love the Monkees but they sabotaged their own career they really needed don and even after don left the Monkees went back to having other people make their music for them again so what was point of ditching don.
On ‘Sugar, Sugar’ Ray Stevens…yes THAT Ray Stevens; provided the hand clap rhythm in the background
I think that the song The Monkees were offered was "Never Get Enough Of Sugar", a Neil Sedaka song that includes the "sugar, sugar" refrain.
It was "Sugar Man" DC by Sandy Linzell & Denny Randell. The Backing Track was Recorded on January 22nd, 1967.
@@TheORIGINALBrentTheGent This is great info. I always had a feeling that nobody in this drama of conflicting claims was lying. I prefer to assume that Don Kirshner simply got the two songs confused. I wonder if any of the unreleased Archies tracks that Ron Dante says exists will ever appear on UA-cam?
@@KCStuffedAnimal You solved that by finding the Copyright claim which decidedly puts "Sugar Sugar" in 1969. Besides, there's no guarantee that a Monkees version would have been a hit. The production, vocals and sound all would have been different. The Archies caught lightning in a bottle.
@@TheORIGINALBrentTheGent Incidentally, the song "Sugar Man" was copyrighted in 1967. Linzer and Randell recorded their own version for Columbia Records. Micky Dolenz could have made it it a big hit, for sure.
Yeah, ignore the guy who produced and packaged the song. What does he know?
Is this the guy that SNL was imitating with "More Cowbell?"
I got the single on the back of a cereal box.
At 2:00 Mr. Barry says that "Archies record sales were based purely on the music..." Not quite! The animated series played along , like the Disney music hits.
Don Kirshner did not have a tv show until 1972 of june i know that wikipedia says that Don Kirshner started the show in September 27, 1973 because where i lived at the time i saw the show in june 1972 and then moved out in nov 1972 i was 14 at the time and these are the real people of the group the Archies (
Ron Dante
Toni Wine
Jeff Barry
Donna Marie
Bobby Bloom
Chuck Rainey ) and the song "Sugar, Sugar", written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim and Andy Kim sang a lot of songs that he wrote and sang
Don Kirshner with another episode in rock history,
MUSICAL MEMORIAL: PRODUCER/SONGWRITER DON KIRSHNER DIED ON THIS DAY, JANUARY 17, 2011, AT THE AGE OF 76. THE CAUSE OF DEATH WAS CARDIAC ARREST/HEART ATTACK. DON WAS BORN ON APRIL 17, 1934, IN BRONX, NEW YORK. MAY DON KIRSHNER REST IN HARMONY. FOR MORE INFO AND MEMORIALS, PLEASE JOIN MY GROUP AND VIEW MY UA-cam POSTS: TONY JAMS MUSICAL MEMORIALS 1950'S AND BEYOND. FACE BOOK PAGE: TONY JAMS MUSICAL MEMORIALS. THANK YOU.
The comments on this are hilarious. Do any of you actually LIKE rock and roll music?
I think what he's saying is the monkeys or the donkeys or the junkies or whatever the group was should have listened to what he had to say!
Duly noted that the song is the only thing the only hit 4 them
when are we going to see the full episode?
So according to other comments this guy is lying. Is that right? Typical, if true. Still a good song.
Kirshner was very talented, but must have been tough to work with, as evidenced by his attitude here. The Monkees were right to turn it down - their hits were much better and more clever than "Sugar, Sugar" actually rivaling some Beatles songs in their quality (Clakesville, Believer, Daydream, Little Bit of, Words, etc.).
Wo was behind josie and the pussycats
"Sugar Sugar" is NOT a Monkee song.
It would have been horrible
WRONG! It was "Sugar MAN",NOT Sugar Sugar! Donnie got the song WRONG!
there was a real band THE ARCHIES that played the sugar sugar song
From interviews with Don Kirshner's music contractor, Artie Kaplan, Jeff Barry and Ron Dante who is very open with information, I think I've determined the musicians who played on "Sugar, Sugar": Hugh McCracken, Sal DiTroia, Andy Kim, guitars; Joe Mack, bass; Ron Frangipane, keyboards; Gary Chester, drums; Jeff Barry, tambourine; Ron Dante, lead and backing vocals; Toni Wine, Ray Stevens, handclapping and backing vocals. Toni Wine and Jeff Barry also contributed keyboards to the session and Artie Kaplan says he played a saxophone part that may be buried in the mix or that wasn't used.