Category: archies

Andy Kim “How’d We Ever Get This Way/ Rainbow Ride” CD (Collectors Choice)

Medium Image

Not the Archies, but the Archies team (Jeff Barry and Andy Kim) at the peak of their musical creativity, with a two-fer reish of dreamboat vocalist/co-writer Kim’s first two albums for their indie Steed Records. After nearly a decade as producer and songwriter for hire for some of the most savvy guys in the business, Jeff Barry found himself with the muscle to bring projects to completion on his own. With these two albums, you’ve got the sound of pop’s finest craftsmen delighting in the formal structures of late sixties pop and forging two dozen lovely little moments. “HWEGTW” is more traditional Brill Building romanticism, with Barry’s trademark eclectic arrangements brimming with handclaps, steel drum and hushed, layered vocals. On “Rainbow Ride,” the pair are mildly psychedelicized, offering frenetic, organ-fueled rockers (“Please Be true”). Love You-era Stonesy rambles (“Nobody’s Ever Going Anywhere”) and with the gorgeous “Foundation of My Soul,” a reminder that, no matter what the hippie critics said, in the magical world of Kim and Barry, love, and pop, are not at all disposable.

The Dave Pell Singers – “Mah-Na-Mah-Na” CD (El)

On this dizzy 1969 release, West Coast jazzbo and his session cats work a breezy adult contemporary vibe, with giddy female vocal choirs manifesting the audio equivalent of a gaggle of happy stewardesses bearing fluffy pillows. The mellow, playful arrangements are applied to an appealing collection of bubblegum and pop-rock standards, including “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” the Sesame Street-popularized title track and “Sugar Sugar.” While the boy/girl singers are utterly out of their depth on the latter, it’s still a hoot to hear a dark narrative like “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town” handled so frothily. Silly, sweet mainstream fluff, presumably originally aimed at foxy grandpas, and still likely to please the comfy chair and fruity drink set. (Kim Cooper)

Remastered Archies & Crazy Elephant CDs

Medium Image

Repertoire has remastered the bubblicious debut from Riverdale’s finest, and packaged it with the mono 45 versions of "Bang Shang A Lang" (just typing that makes me wanna shimmy) and "Truck Driver." They also have turned that hard-to-find Crazy Elephant album into a shiny silver disk, with nine bonus tracks. It’s pachadyrmistic.

Medium Image

AND NOW, A BRAND NEW DANCE TO WATCH AND LEARN!! The Archies Dance-of-the-Week Collection!

Hi. I’ve already shared most of this collection with you as part of "The Riverdale Archives", but I recently discovered two more dances ("The Angel" and "The Bubblegum") from my old VHS tapes. I think there are still more out there, but this gave me 19 tracks, enough to warrant a separate collection focusing just on the dance numbers. In case you’re not familiar with these, they’re all unreleased and taken directly from videotapes of the first season cartoons. When "The Archie Show" debuted on CBS-TV in 1968, the music was a big part of the show’s draw. Not only did the half-hour series feature the best stories of the entire Filmation/Archie run (very similar to the old comic book plotlines), it also gave us one of the finest bubblegum bands on the planet. Kirshner Records’ Archies albums are some of the best pop records ever recorded. Don Kirshner did have a golden ear, and it heard a golden voice in singer Ron Dante. Ron’s voice shines like the sun itself on a brilliant catalog that gave us four top 40 hits and five studio albums. The only reason that I don’t share the albums is out of respect and love for Ron, who is one of the nicest guys in show business. I don’t want to curtail one thin dime from him, as he and Kirshner do plan to release a box set at some point. These TV-only tracks will probably never be released, so I don’t mind sharing them. The "Dance-of-the-Week" segments were used in the first season only to lead into a track from the first album. They were terrific little numbers that featured the Archie gang performing an animated version of the dance steps while the music played. The voice that introduces the dances is Dallas McKennon, Archie’s TV speaking voice. The songs themeselves are performed by Ron Dante and the crack musicians from the albums (including Jeff Barry and Toni Wine!) These dance numbers bring back such fantastic memories of that awesome first season that made The Archies rock stars! I am currently sharing mp3’s of the following Dance-of-the-week numbers at my blog,                                   http://www.mondodaddykin.blogspot.com/  Enjoy! TRACK LISTING: 01. DANCE-OF-THE-WEEK INTRODUCTION, 02. THE STICKSHIFT, 03. THE ANGEL, 04. THE BUBBLEGUM, 05. THE ROCKETSHIP, 06. THE MILKSHAKE, 07. THE INDIAN, 08. THE JUGHEAD, 09. THE BEANIE, 10. THE BETTY, 11. THE GRUNDY, 12. THE SURFER, 13. THE WEATHERBEE, 14. THE HAMBURGER HOP, 15. THE BANANA SPLIT, 16. THE VERONICA WALK, 17. THE TOUCHDOWN, 18. THE MOONWALK (Recorded for Tang Radio Ad), 19. TANG RADIO AD.

Ron Dante’s Lost Singles- Forgotten Gems From The Voice Of The Archies!

Hi. As a huge Archies fan and avid record collector, I set out to find as many tracks as I could that featured the golden pop voice of Ron Dante. Many of you may know that in addition to the wonderful Archies catalog, Ron was also the voice of "Tracy" by The Cufflinks. Well, his pop music history goes much further and deeper than that. While researching his career on the internet a few years ago, I stumbled into a website called "Laura Pinto’s Ron Dante Fan Pages." This chick had written extensive articles on Dante, including a discography that blew me away! While I had found a few old singles at yard sales and flea markets, Laura had amassed a collection so thorough that she was providing the man himself with copies of his own lost songs! Well, after a few e-mail exchanges, Laura and I became friends and started to trade tracks and videos back and forth. While the CD that I’m offering at MONDO DADDYKIN does not give you everything from our collections, it is definitely the cream of the crop of the rarities. These 32 tracks are all compiled from Laura’s singles. She had me transfer them for her and Ron awhile back, and has graciously given me permission to post them. We tried to avoid songs that are available commercially or for download from Ron’s official site. Ron Dante’s work was often released under the name of a "ghost group" or a pseudonym. The CD starts with his very first record, Ronnie Dante’s "Little Lollipop" from 1963! Laura Pinto also runs several other awesome sites dedicated to bubblegum music and classic oldies, and contributes invaluable articles to the pop community on a regular basis. Laura, bless you for sharing your collection with us. Hopefully, this will give our readers a new appreciation of the pop giant that is Ron Dante. I am sharing mp3’s of many of these rarities at my blog,  http://www.mondodaddykin.blogspot.com/ Check it out!! daddykin

Press Release: Andy Kim two-fer reissues due in July

Medium Image

This press release just in:

ANDY KIM, CO-WRITER OF “SUGAR SUGAR,” IS SWEET ON COLLECTORS’ CHOICE MUSIC
 
Four albums by last of the Brill Building artists (How’d We Ever Get This Way/Rainbow Ride and Baby I Love You/Andy Kim) to be reissued on two CDs on July 18
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Andy Kim has sold millions of records, but most people are under the impression he sold mere hundreds of thousands. The reason is simple. Although Kim had many hits under his own name (“How’d We Ever Get This Way,” “Baby I Love You,” “Rock Me Gently” and “So Good Together,” to name a few), he co-wrote (with Jeff Barry) the Archies’ mega-hit “Sugar Sugar,” which sold 6 million 45 RPM units. Ron Dante provided the magic voice. Yet the fans never saw the scaffolding behind the scenes. The Archies, after all, consisted of Archie, Jughead, Reggie, Betty and Veronica, right?
 
Collectors’ Choice Music on July 18 will re-release four Andy Kim LPs via two loaded CDs: How’d We Ever Get This Way mates with Rainbow Ride to document Kim’s 1968-69 output, while Baby I Love You is conjoined with the eponymous Andy Kim. All albums except for Andy Kim (which was on Uni Records) were originally released on Steed Records, which was founded in 1967 by songwriter/producer Barry as a division of Jeff Barry Enterprises. Distribution was through Dot Records. It was another era, to be sure.
 
Andy Kim, the man with the magic pipes, was born Andre Youakim in Montreal and at age 16 arrived in New York, where he played a song for his Brill Building hero Jeff Barry. Thus began one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, which in turn led to Kim’s hit singles and albums for Steed, which are widely regarded as the last, glorious gasp of the Brill Building sound.

Jeff Barry’s Bubblegum Blues

Jeff Barry’s Bubblegum Blues
interview by Don Charles

“Some songs, like ‘Where Have All The Flowers Gone?’ people hear and they get sad. I think I’d rather have them get happy! That’s really where I was coming from.” That’s how songwriter/producer extraordinaire Jeff Barry sums up his musical philosophy, a philosophy that moved millions of dollars’ worth of vinyl around the world during the 1960s. Jeff Barry was the crown king of bubble gum rock producers (only Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz’ A & R staff came close to challenging his dominance of the genre).

Jeff Barry: I was born in Brooklyn. When I was about seven, my parents got divorced, and I moved in with my mom and sister in Plainfield, New Jersey. I lived there until I was eleven, and then we moved back to Brooklyn. For some reason, I was hearing a lot of country music. As long as I can remember, I’ve always loved horses, and probably without realizing it, I liked listening to country and western music because that went along with horses!

Don Charles: My research indicates that your family name was Adelberg . . .

Jeff Barry: Yes, that

The Melodic Milestones of Jeff Barry

The Melodic Milestones of Jeff Barry
by Chris Davidson

The bubblegum firmament boasts many a bigwig but none bigger and firmer than Jeff Barry, a man blessed with ears you should smooch the next time you see him. For without those nutty lobes, which uncannily heard glistening super-pop pumping up from the subway grilles on his stroll to the office down Broadway every morning, we

2005 Bubblegum Achievement Awards DVD

Can you say… ARCHIES REUNION?! Gummy Awards DVDs are finally available, including the amazing live duets from Ron Dante and Toni Wine and Ron Dante and Joey Levine!

Canned Hamm and the Bubblegum Queen performed live and hosted a night of many delights, including a puppet spectacular by the Bob Baker Marionettes, the L.A. premiere of a documentary based on the book "Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth," Abram the Safety Ape’s tribute to Lancelot Link, and musical performances from Ron Dante solo and in duets with his fellow Archie (and 2003 Gummy winner) Toni Wine and the Ohio Express’ Joey Levine.

Then it was time for the Gummy Awards, with trophies presented to Steve Barri (Lancelot Link, Grass Roots), Ron Dante (Archies), Dr. Demento (radio hero) & Joey Levine (Ohio Express).

Now available: a 71 minute DVD spectacular featuring the highlights from this most pink and magical night, The 2005 Bubblegum achievement Awards Show. Copies are available for $22 postpaid in the USA and for $25 elsewhere. Or add $12 to your Scram subscription and save $10! Please send payment in US dollars to Scram, PO Box 31227, LA, CA 90031, or paypal to scram @ scrammagazine . com. Please note that the documentary is not included in the DVD package, and the puppet show has been heavily edited due to time constraints. Special orders for a second DVD containing the entire puppet show are possible. Email scram @ scrammagazine . com for more info.