Behind the Music: The Archies

They burst onto the music scene like no cartoon charcters since Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm first rocked the Hollyrock Palace with Let the Sunshine In way back in 1965. They were a group of five dedicated young musicians. They were The Archies.

Their success may have been short-lived, but the mark The Archies left on the world of popular music in the late '60s cannot be denied. Created on clean sheets of paper by a team of cartoonists, these talented musicians experienced some of the highest highs and lowest lows of any band in the history of rock-and-roll.

And here is their story...

The Early Days

The band got its roots from a group called Andrews, Jones & Crosby-a garage band formed in 1963 by high school pals Archie Andrews, Jughead Jones, and future Rock-and-Roll Hall of Famer David Crosby. Following high school graduation, Crosby left the band to help form Buffalo Springfield and ultimately the super-group Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Meanwhile Archie and Jughead dropped from the music scene altogether and moved to Hollywood to pursue acting careers.

Working their way through the ranks of animation, Archie and Jughead spent the next four years playing bit parts in such shows as George of the Jungle, The Jetsons, and The Yogi Bear Show. Then in 1968, the two buddies got the big break they'd been waiting for with their own weekly Saturday morning series called The Archie Show.

Three fresh new faces were added to the cast when a major casting call produced Reggie Mantle, Betty Cooper, and Veronica Lodge. The new characters joined Archie and Jughead in week two and the ensemble cast quickly became the talk of every grade school in America. The Archie Show was an immediate success and it was only a matter of time before series creators decided to take advantage of the musical talents of their young cast.

The Band

With The Archie Show riding high in the ratings, a band called The Archies was formed late in the premier season. The band performed a variety of songs-a majority of which were penned by Archie and Reggie. With Archie playing lead guitar, Reggie on bass, Veronica twinkling the keyboards, Betty banging the tambourine and Jughead pounding the drums, the band headed to the recording studio unaware that they would soon be making music history.

On September 20, 1969, a tune written by the team of Archie and Reggie, Sugar, Sugar, began a four-week reign at the top of the Billboard charts. It marked the first time an animated singing group had ever had a number one single and made immediate stars of The Archies. Demand for the group was astounding as they made appearances on American Bandstand, The Tonight Show and The Ed Sullivan Show.

Other hits soon followed-though none nearly as successful as Sugar, Sugar-and the band went on tour hitting every major city from coast-to-coast. Their songs filled the airwaves, their pictures were plastered on the front of every teen magazine, and they even had a meeting with the Pope. The good life had come to the five young musicians and it looked as though their popularity would never diminish.

The Death Spiral Begins

But with fame comes high expectations and the pressure of putting out more hits was already starting to get to be too much for a number of members of the band. David Crosby's influence on Archie and Jughead was not only musical. During their time together, he had introduced the pair to drugs-not a problem for Archie who was able to know when to say when, but a monkey on the back of Jughead who would battle drug addiction the rest of his life. After Sugar, Sugar hit number one, the drummer celebrated by having a three-day party at his Beverly Hills home with lots of drugs and prostitutes-a party that was raided by the Feds after an anonymous tip (although never revealed, many believe the tip came from Scooby Doo with whom Jughead had had a long standing feud). In what would become a common occurrence in the life of Jughead Jones, he was arrested on drug and prostitution charges.

Drugs weren't the only problem clouding the future of the band. A love triangle involving Reggie, Veronica and Betty caused bitter feelings between the two beauties after Betty walked in on Reggie and Veronica making love on top of her keyboard. One heated exchange at a recording session ended with Betty and Veronica wrestling on the floor, pulling hair and beating each other with tambourines as their three male band mates cheered them on. Following that incident, Betty left the band to join Josie and the Pussycats. But that didn't put an end to sexual controversy.

On his show, he was portrayed as a typical teenage boy interested in girls like Betty and Veronica, but in fact Archie was living the tortured life of a closeted homosexual. His early overtures toward the handsome Reggie led to a black eye and a lecture from producers of the show who insisted that Archie's secret desires remain secret as long as he was under contract. To overcompensate, Archie began a string of one-night stands with band groupies and Hollywood starlets. No matter how hard he tried to convince himself that he wasn't gay, it didn't work. In late November, 1971, Archie was arrested for lewd and lascivious conduct after being found having sex in a bathroom stall with a male dancer at a gay Hollywood nightclub. Producers of The Archie Show bailed the hit show's star out and immediately engaged in damage control orchestrating a cover-up.

The band finally hit rock bottom during a 1972 world tour when they were nearly booed off the stage in London. Wanting to introduce the audience to the songs on their latest album, the band-despite constant calls for their biggest hit from the crowd-refused to perform Sugar, Sugar. Similar experiences occurred in the remaining cities on the tour and the band returned home in time to read a scathing article in Rolling Stone entitled "The Archies Suck Ass!" It was only a month later that The Archies officially disbanded. It was the end of an era.

After the fall

After attempting a solo career that went nowhere, Archie quit the music business and decided it was time to tell his story. In his bestselling autobiography, From Sugar, Sugar to Penis, Penis, the former band leader finally came out of the closet and told of the struggles of a gay man trying to maintain a straight image. No longer living a lie, Archie is now happily working on Broadway as a choreographer and lives in Greenwich Village with his partner of seven years, actor Nathan Lane.

Reggie and Veronica stayed in Hollywood, appeared in various low-budget films, and married in 1976 only to divorce two years later. Neither has been able to gain back the fame they enjoyed with The Archies and Reggie is now an angry alcoholic always getting involved in bar fights and constantly spending time in and out of rehab. Veronica spends most of her time going to Hollywood parties with her BFF Paris Hilton and is one of the most downloaded women on the Internet mainly because she is often photographed by the paparazzi getting out of her car minus panties.

After only two years with the band, Betty was kicked out of Josie and the Pussycats for "not being as sexy as the rest of us are." Devastated by having her sex appeal questioned, Betty turned to the world of pornography appearing in over 100 x-rated films under the name "Sugar Pussycat." She retired from the porn industry in 1982 and is now one of those insufferable born-again Christians always telling the rest of us we are going to hell.

Unable to break away from the world of drugs, Jughead's life spun out of control. He was known to go on week-long binges with his best friend, comedian Andy Dick. Finally, on the night of June 8, 1986, Jughead Jones was found dead on the bathroom floor of his apartment having choked to death on his own vomit. An autopsy found fatal doses of barbiturates, cocaine, cheeseburgers and milkshakes in his system. He was 42.

Few cartoon bands have had as big an impact on the music industry as The Archies. But like many other bands, they soared high and fell fast, crashing down to the ground like the Hindenburg. Perhaps the lyrics of their greatest hit, Sugar, Sugar sums it up best:

Sugar, ah honey, honey
You are my candy girl
And you've got me wanting you

Or maybe not.