Daily Dirt: ‘Sugar, Sugar’ by the Archies tops Steve’s favorite songs from 1969

Daily Dirt for Friday, Dec. 22, 2023

“Sugar Sugar” may have been the height of bubble gum pop music, but it was still a great song … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 817 of The Daily Dirt.

1. Today we close the books on our tribute to the best songs of the mid-to-late 1960s, the golden era of pop music. Here are my top 10 songs from 1969, starting with what was arguably the biggest hit of the bubble gum era:

• 1. “Sugar, Sugar,” by the Archies: Ron Dante, now 78, was the lead singer for this animated group. I was able to exchange emails with him a few years ago about songs from this era. He was an incredibly interesting musician, plus quite entertaining.
• 2. “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love),” by Junior Walker and the All-Stars: Junior may have been the finest sax player in pop music history.
• 3. “Sweet Caroline,” by Neil Diamond: Where would today’s sports events be without this classic?
• 4. “Baby, I Love You,” by Andy Kim: One of the best songs from the summer of ’69.
• 5. “Suspicious Minds,” by Elvis Presley: My favorite Elvis song.
• 6. “Traces,” by the Classics IV: One of the best songs about heartbreak to ever hit the charts.
• 7. “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me,” by the Supremes and Temptations: The Supremes, as we knew them, were nearing the end. Diana Ross was about to embark upon a solo career. The end of an era was near.
• 8. “Honky Tonk Women,” by the Rolling Stones: Mick was only 26 at the time of this hit song. Twenty-six! He’s now 80 and still singing about the women of the night.
• 9. “Worst That Could Happen,” by the Brooklyn Bridge: Lead singer Johnny Maestro’s real name was John Peter Mastrangelo.
• 10. “Love Can Make You Happy,” by Mercy: Unfortunately, we never heard from this group again.

2. A conversation of love?

Her: “If I said I love you, would you say it back?”
Him: Yes.
Her: “I love you.”
Him: “It back.”

3. Let’s change decades. Have you ever thought about what you miss most from the 1970s? How many of the following strike a chord?

• Pet rocks: I had a girlfriend in the early 1970s who liked these things. She was a bit hard-headed.
• TV dinners: Call me crazy, but I still enjoy these things.
• Farrah Fawcett posters: Yes, I had one. Maybe two.
• Atari video game consoles: When the Atari systems came out in 1977, one cost about $190, the equivalent of about $850 today. Though Atari dominated gaming in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it faltered amid competition from other game developers.
• Wall phones: They were the polar opposite of the sleek, convenient cell phones that we use today.
• Giant TVs: A solid, twenty-one-inch color TV console would cost you around $500 in the ’70s. In today’s money, that’s about $3,300. You might remember that televisions from the seventies were huge. Their screens were small compared to the large, 100-pound, wooden cases in which they came. As time progressed, screen sizes increased while the rest of the TV grew smaller.
• 8-track tapes: Thank heaven someone invented CDs.
• View-Masters: View-Master is one of the most famous toys of the second half of the 20th century. The trademark was developed by William Gruber for Mattel. It was introduced in 1939, and people loved the fact that you could see 3D images just by looking into the camera.
• Pac-Man arcade game: You couldn’t go to any arcade in the late ‘70s without running into a Pac-Man game.
• Vinyl records: Some of the biggest records of the decade included “Born to Run” (Bruce Springsteen, 1975), “Blue” (Joni Mitchell, 1971), “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (Simon & Garfunkel, 1970), “Hunky Dory” (David Bowie, 1971) and “What’s Going On” (Marvin Gaye, 1971). You can still find a lot of old vinyl records from the decade on eBay for $10 to $30 apiece.
• Transistor radios: In the 1960s and 1970s, they were the most-used electronic communications device in the world.
• Polaroid cameras: Do you realize an entire generation has no idea what these things even were?
• Tang: The same person who created Tang, William Mitchell, also invented Cool Whip and Pop Rocks. When I was a wee lad, I actually enjoyed Tang, especially as a summertime cool-me-off.
• Shag carpeting: When the Little Woman and myself moved into the house where we currently live, there was shag carpeting from the 1970s in the basement. It was orange. It was beautiful.

Steve Thought O’ The Day
I kind of miss that old orange shag carpeting.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. Everybody has their opinion on the Ginger/Mary Anne debate from “Gilligan’s Island,” but what about the Betty/Veronica debate from “The Archies”?