by Moe Zilla

Created on: June 08, 2008   Last Updated: June 20, 2008

Nearly 40 years ago I'd gotten one of the Archies' songs off the back of a box of cereal. As part of the packaging they'd included a small cardboard record with a vinyl surface, and kids trimmed it out (following the perforated circle) to play on their phonographs. The record I'd gotten was "Sugar, Sugar," but I traded it to a friend for his own cardboard cut-out record - the Archies singing "Love Light."

Last Saturday I stumbled across a relic from the same year at a garage sale across the street - a copy of the Archies' album "Jingle Jangle." I remember us six-year-olds discussing the song "Nursery Rhyme," but it wasn't until nearly 40 years later that I realized how cynical its lyrics were.

"You say you'll love me all the time
You're saying that you'll always be mine.
Well I feel I've got to tell you, it sounds like a nursery rhyme.

You say you're gonna see me tomorrow, and when you come to do me sorrow
Little Miss Muffet, you're making me a Little Boy Blue.

Don't you know you're driving me crazy, and treating me just like a baby
I'm through with Mother Goosing and bedtime stories from you."

It's one of the songs on the "Jingle Jangle" album, and it's proof that the music of the Archies wasn't meant exclusively for children. (The second verse of "Jingle Jangle" finds a hip Betty living "down here in the city," and two years later the Archies would even issue an anti-war anthem called "A Summer Prayer for Peace.") There's a strange mock western song called "Whoope Tie Ai A (I Love You More Each Day)." But the biggest hit on the album was the catchy song "Jingle Jangle," which provided the Archies with another top-ten followup for "Sugar, Sugar."

A clear female voice - presumably "Betty" - delivers a gentle intro ("Sing me, sing me, baby") over a single electric guitar chord. But as she suddenly hits an impressively high "Oooh," the chords turn into a riff, and a full chorus of Archies joins in with a happy refrain of "La, la la, la la la." "Jingle Jangle" was ultimately chosen as both the album's title and its first cut

It's not until the album's final track that any of the Archie's are even mentioned. The song "Archie's Party" rollicks through a standard I-IV-V chord progression as it lists out all the characters who are gonna be there at Archie's "out of sight" party. During the instrumental break, a male voice is heard saying "Gimme gimme gimme," and an exasperated female voice responding "Jughead, stop..." But for the rest of the album, the Archies focus seriously on the business of making hit records.

And the music is surprisingly good!

Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.