I talked on the phone recently with my niece Rachel. She is 11 and lives in Boulder, CO. Her favorite show is Riverdale, and she loves to talk about it.
I learned this TV show was adapted from the old comic books featuring Archie and Betty and Jughead and Veronica and Reggie.
I was a big Archie fan when I was Rachel’s age. I had stacks of the comic books, and I watched the cartoon on Saturday morning.
I know nothing about CW’s TV rendition of Riverdale , except that it’s not a cartoon and is very popular with the tween and early teen demographic.
Over the phone with Rachel I started singing “Sugar Sugar’ from 1969.
Sugar, uh uh uh uh uh uh,
Ah honey honey, uh uh uh uh uh uh
You are my candy girl
And you got me wanting you
Talk about a take-you-back-in time little ear worm. I still remember the words.
“I like the new version,” Rachel said, interrupting my reverie.
New version? Of Sugar, Sugar?
How could they remake the best song ever by a cartoon character. ‘Sugar, Sugar’ was the No. 1 song for the year 1969.
Here’s what ENews at eonline.com says: “Sugar, Sugar” was originally performed by The Archies, a group of fictional characters from The Archie Show. The song shot to No. 1 on the Billboard 100 chart and stayed there for four weeks, topping songs by the likes of Marvin Gaye, Elvis Presley and The Beatles.
See what I’m talking about? Archie Andrews sold more 45’s of ‘Sugar, Sugar’ than songs by Marvin Gaye, Elvis, and the Beatles? Also the Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder. It beat songs like ‘Proud Mary,’ ‘Suspicious Minds,’ Spinning Wheel’ and on and on. (Actually Wilson Pickett did a pretty good soulful version in 1970.)
Archie Andrews. With Betty on tambourine. And the other wonderful cartoon musicians.
Listen to Archie’s phrasing when he sings ‘Oh sugar, pour a little sugar on it honey,’ deftly juxtaposing sugar with the sweetness of honey. A brilliant bit of wordplay there.
What’s not to like: there’s the double-knee crunch dancing of Betty and Veronica; Archie playing a mean rhythm guitar that looks like a Gibson Les Paul; and all sorts of cartoon shenanigans like Archie and Reggie turning into a frog or rabbit when kissed.
That kind of splendid imagery can’t happen in Riverdale with live actors, I don’t care what kind of special effects you have these days.
But Rachel insisted the Josie and Pussycats version at Riverdale is by far the best Sugar, Sugar.
In the updated version, they have changed the name of the song to ‘Candy Girl (Sugar, Sugar).’ by Inner Circle featuring Flo Rida, (Vocalizing, I suppose for Josie and the Pussycats). It’s a modern song and the show is a far cry from the Archie of Saturday mornings past. Parents need to know that Riverdale is a drama about a group of teens that’s based on the classic Archie comics.
According to https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/riverdale#: “The series has a much darker tone than the comics, with events revolving around the murder of a local teen boy, an illicit affair.”
Archie? With a teacher? Maybe things have become, well, real. Maybe too real.
Here’s the new version, with a new rapping intro:
Rachel, my niece, gives a solid thumbs up to the Riverdale version.
I am partial to the old version, the No. 1 hit in 1969. Maybe the competition will spur cartoon Archie to come out of retirement and get the band back together. (He’s been virtually unheard of since that bitter break-up song in the 70s: ‘I Don’t Need You to Carry a ‘Toon.’)
Which one do you like best?
(To comment, click on the headline and scroll to the botttom of the story. For more on the song and the Archies see here.)