My first (and last) interview with The ArchiesRecently, I had the opportunity to sit down with one of the most interesting bands of the 60s and 70s to discuss their hit album "Everything's Archie". It was really tough getting all of the members together after all these years. The band, with their longtime engineer Dilton Doily, related a lot of comments on the making of the album. The Archies are: Archie Andrews, Reggie Mantle, Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper, and Veronica Lodge.
First, I want to thank you all for agreeing to be interviewed. Let's start with the first song and just go down the list. "Feelin' So Good Skooby Doo" was the first song and single from the album. What can you tell me about it?
Archie: Well, we had a lot of fun recording that song. We laid it down in one take, but added overdubs later.
Reggie: Handclaps. That was Betty's idea.
Betty: We were listening to the playback and I just thought it needed something extra.
Jughead: It was just a fun little song we thought the kids would like, and it was, of course, a play on the popular show "Skooby Doo, Where Are You?".
Veronica: Yeah! We thought they were our friends, too, until Shaggy threatened a lawsuit because we didn't have permission to use his dog's name. I mean, big deal! You'd think they would be flattered. So, anyway, the song was already out as a single, so we agreed to give him a cut of the royalties. We even helped their ratings!
Reggie: yeah, bummer, man! Ungrateful little...
Let's move on to "Melody Hill". Anything on that one?
Archie: Nah! I just wrote it in a few minutes on a napkin between sets at a show in Denver, I think.
"Rock & Roll Music"
Jughead: That's one of the few songs the guys let me actually sing on.
Reggie: Is that what you call what you did? Singing? Hahhahahahah!
Jughead: Shut up Reg!
Betty: Damn! Some people never change!
OK, I want to move along to "Kissin'".
Jughead: We got one of the guys from Riverdale High to play the congas on that one. It was a lot of fun. He went on to be a big session player in L.A.. Did a lot of gigs.
Betty: I think he recorded an album with Josie & The Pussycats, too.
Archie: Reg wrote the lyrics when he was secretly dating Midge, at least until Moose found out.
Reggie: Look! The guy had some serious problems! He was very insecure, and Midge had just had enough, so we started seeing each other behind his back, that is, until ol' carrot top ratted on us.
Archie: I didn't rat on you! He saw you two at Chuck Clayton's party in one of the upstairs bedrooms. It took five of us to keep him from killing you that night. We told him you were dropping acid and thought Midge was Ron [Veronica]. You're lucky he bought it. One of the few times I saved your ass, even though it would have been nice to have seen him lay you out.
Veronica: Look guys! It's been a long time since we've even seen each other. Can you two just get along this one time?
Reggie: Fine! OK!
Archie: Yeah, sure!
"Don't Touch My Guitar"
Reggie: I had been listening to a lot of blues music, and I thought it would be a great idea to do a bar-blues type number.
Archie: Yeah, I was over at his house one day, and we were just listening to a lot of records of these old bluesmen, trying to come up with something different.
Jughead: We knew the kids wouldn't be able to relate to it, but we wanted to do it anyway. In fact, the whole album was a bit different from our first. We consciously tried to slip in a couple of more mature songs.
We'll talk about some more of those later. But, what can you tell me about "Circle Of Blue?"
Betty: That was my first attempt at writing, and I think it turned out pretty nice.
Dilton: Hot Dog...I was watching Hot Dog while the band was away, and I just happened to bring him with me that day to the studio. Well, I had just gotten through mixing the song, and I thought it was pretty good, but, you know that screeching sound you get when you rewind a tape? Well, it freaked Hot Dog out, and he jumped up onto the tape machine and pulled it out all over the floor. The multitrack tape was wasted, and I didn't run a backup, so I we had to track it all over again. But, it turned out better the second time, I think. Archie wasn't too happy. The band took some time off and had to fly back here to redo the song.
OK, now we're getting to the big one here. Song of the year for 1969? How in the world did that happen?
Veronica: [Laughs] One of the biggest flukes in history! I still can't explain it!
Archie: Oh my God! We must have done a hundred takes and a hundred more mixes of that. And, we wound up using the second take. It was the proverbial last song we did because we needed one more song. The record label was on us about getting the album out, so we stayed up all night and worked on it before we went in to lay it down the next day.
Betty: Archie did some nice rhythm guitar work on it. Was that an accoustic you used?
Jughead: At one time, we called everyone in the building to join in, you know, like The Beatles did with "Hey Jude".
Reggie: It turned into a real party. I guess we got the idea when Ron did that second "I'm gonna make your life so sweet" part. It sounded festive, and we just started calling anybody in. That was after a lot of takes, and people started bringing in beer. I think we all kind of got drunk, smokin', you know. And, we were usually sober when we were in the studio. No pharmaceuticals. That was our rule.
Veronica: we were outliers, for sure, but we didn't want to wind up like so many bands did.
"You Little Angel You" was pretty unique. There was no bass on it. Was that an accident?
Reggie: No. I can laugh about it now, but me and Arch got into it while we were mixing it. We actually mixed it, and it was our first attempt at mixing by ourselves. In those days, we didn't have all this automation, so you needed lots of hands. Anyway, as we were running down the mix, I was trying to turn it up, and he would take his hand and push it back down. So I would push down his guitar fader. I pushed the bass back up, he would knock it down. Me the same with the guitar. We kept this up for maybe a half hour, and we were running out of studio time. So, after we gave up for the day, He secretly booked some time and mixed the song with someone else...with no bass! I was pissed when I heard the test pressing, but realized it sounded good that way, so I let it go.
Archie: But, if you notice, this album is different from the first because there is a lot more bass on it, and organ too. I like that. It fleshes out the sound more.
"Bicycles, Rollerskates, and You"
Reggie: That was filler. There are a couple of songs we just tossed on there. I think it was actually from our first session and it didn't make the first album, so, there it is. I think they used it for the TV show.
"Hot Dog"
Betty: Juggie was always eating. On this day, it was hot dogs, mustard, relish, and his dog was eating them too, doing his business all over the place. We had to stock up on Lysol! So, anyway, we wrote a song in tribute to...Hot Dog!
"Inside Out, Upside Down"
Veronica: That was me playing with my new keyboards. I didn't like it too much, but our producer insisted.
And, lastly, "Love Light".
Archie: you know, everytime I hear the song today, I think of how someone like Luther Vandross could have covered it, you know, turned it into one of his 10-minute soul ballads. Such a great singer. Gone.
Well, I guess that wraps it up. Great to see you all together after all these years...decades! Do you think you'll do anything again? A lot of bands are making records again. The Rolling Stones just put out a blues album. Maybe you could do something similar.
Jughead: well, we sure can't go back to bubblegum the way we did it. Kids are too sophisticated these days. My great-grandson is three years old, but can work a smartphone better than I can. They don't want to hear Jingle Jangle. Today it's all about Kendrick Lamar or techno or something. Our time has passed. You can stream our records now.
Thank you all very much.
(This is what insomnia does to you!)