Tune du Jour: “Sugar, Sugar” – The Archies
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes: Big Youth & Junior Byles vs. Mary Lou Lord with Semisonic vs. Wilson Pickett
VOTE, COMMENT, then TURN, TURN, TURN
CoverMeImpressed.com CoverMeImpressed.com CoverMeImpressed.com
I’ve been a Puppet, a Pauper, a Pirate, a Poet, a Broccoli Man …
The Original
The Archies:
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes
Big Youth & Junior Byles vs. Mary Lou Lord with Semisonic vs. Wilson Pickett
Big Youth & Junior Byles:
Mary Lou Lord with Semisonic:
Wilson Pickett:
SPACE
Oh the disharmony! Much like Harlan County there are no neutrals here. It is your solemn responsibility to decide which cover song prevails. In other words … Which Side Are You On?!!?
Disclaimer: Votes cast from Florida may or may not be counted.
cover me impressed 
Wilson Pickett is so cool.
“Sugar Sugar” was a huge hit and was all over the radio (and Saturday morning TV) around the time I first started listening to radio and buying 45s. My brother and I had the single, of course. I see that it was Billboard’s number one song of the year for 1969.
Ron Dante, lead singer for The Archies, was a session vocalist and appeared on a number of pop hits and misses over the years. He also sang lead on “Tracy” by The Cuff Links. I bought a bubblegum compilation a couple years ago that featured those two songs and a host of other goodies.
Interesting and varied group of covers today, and I enjoyed all three. I had forgotten Wilson Pickett had covered it, even though it appears on one of my WP albums.
This has to be one of the biggest surprise appearances by an R&B legend since last month when James Brown stopped by CMI to perform “Don’t Fence Me In”.
I was very into this song when I was a kid. I used to watch the Archies cartoon on TV when I was a kid, and while the opening credits were a cartoon (with Betty smacking the tambourine against her hip, seductively), the closing credits were of a live band made up of kids who were on stage, playing in front of a screaming crowd of kids. I remember wishing very much that I could be a member of the Archies, up on stage like that, with my peers screaming their heads off, proving that I could be cool, instead of the pathetic nerd that I was. Sigh. The song was number 1 in 1969, beating out the Fifth Dimension’s Age of Aquarius.
I’m surprised Richie didn’t somehow find a ska version to include here, because that backbeat does seem to lend itself to ska-ification.
I have that Saturday Morning Cartoon CD in my collection. Pretty amazing list of bands on it. I’ve heard the Mary Lou Lord version many times now, but I still think it’s the best one of the three presented today.
If you want to really screw with your head, try to wrap your brain around this Archies/Lou Reed mashup of Sugar Sugar and Sweet Jane:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5yQtHFzP_4 Someone sent it to me via Facebook, and I still can’t get over it.