The Archies - What Goes On (1970)

Like the Dave Clark Five before them in a previous post, The Archies have an undeserved reputation that they will have a hard job to live down, mainly due to just one song - the irresistibly catchy 'Sugar, Sugar'. This track is the epitome of bubblegum pop, and for people who like a bit more sophistication in their music this was enough to put them off the band for good. They didn't help themselves by having a repertoire which included songs like 'Bang-Shang-A-Lang', Jingle Jangle', and 'La De Doo Down Down', but it would be pretty nigh on impossible to fill five albums with songs all of the same calibre, and so tucked away on the records is some pretty good sunshine pop and even the odd hard rocker. Although the band was a fictional group based on characters from Archie comics, the actual music was performed by some well-respected session musicians, including Ron Dante on lead vocals, and Toni Wine on lead and backing vocals, with additional vocals being provided during the sessions by Jeff Barry, Andy Kim, Ellie Greenwich, Susan Morse and Ritchie Adams. The music was provided by Hugh McCracken and Dave Appell on guitar, Chuck Rainey and Joey Macho on bass, Ron Frangipane on keyboards, and Buddy Saltzman and Gary Chester on drums. The songs were mostly written by Jeff Barry, often in collaboration with Andy Kim, and sometime with Ron Dante. On later albums they handed over the reins to Ritchie Adams and Robert Levine, with Ron Dante writing a couple with Bob Gengo and Gene Allan. With such a plethora of talent in the writing and the musicianship there's bound to be some worthwhile songs scattered throughout the albums, and so I've gathered what I think are the best of them onto one disc, omitting all the bubblegum stuff and concentrating on tracks which would have been hailed as great pop songs if only they weren't by The Archies. I've kept the cartoon theme for the cover but gone for a more mature version of the characters by Jaime Hernandez, to reflect the music on here.

Track listing

01 Hide And Seek
02 A Time For Love
03 Truck Driver
04 Catchin' Up On Fun
05 I'm In Love
06 Circle Of Blue
07 Love Light
08 Everything's Alright
09 Get On The Line
10 You Know I Love You
11 Mr. Factory
12 Waldo P. Emerson Jones
13 Comes The Sun
14 Suddenly Susan
15 Hold On To Lovin'
16 Should Anybody Ask
17 What Goes On