THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! The Archies, "Get On The Line"

Expanded from a previous post, this is not part of my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

THE ARCHIES: Get On The Line

Written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim

Produced by Jeff Barry

From the album Jingle Jangle, Kirshner Records, 1969

Incidental music for a Saturday morning TV cartoon series. Beyond the hit singles (which were intended to compete with the Beatles and the 5th Dimension for space on Top 40 radio and for disposable income [or allowances] from young listeners), most of the music released under the Archies' brand name was pure pop, carefully crafted and exquisitely rendered. "Sugar, Sugar" was the biggest hit by far, "Jingle Jangle" my pick for a favorite, and the four Archies LPs contain a decent selection of lesser-known but worthy numbers.

The records were far, far better-made than they had to be, better than they had any right to be. Lead singer/de facto Archie Ron Dante was blessed with a voice made for radio, a masterful pure pop comfort with the subtlest hint of swoon-worthy soul. Pop veteran and celebrated songwriter Jeff Barry was at the helm, and he had world-class session musicians spinning the sugar he required. It was bubblegum, sure, much of it sweet enough (and then some) for the dessert menu at Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe, but some of it grounded in a real world, or at least a comic-strip reflection of the world. Even in cartoons, and even in cartoon tunes, you can only get so far without a little verisimilitude. If you're a fan of Superman, you have to believe a man can fly, and you have to accept the ideal of truth, justice, and the American way. With the Archies, you have to imagine cartoon teenagers singing and playing as they fall in and out of love within their animated escapades. The imaginary group's sound had better live up to the demands of your imagination.

The Archies' records did live up to those demands. The Archies didn't exist, but their music did. 

From the Archies' third (and best) album Jingle Jangle, 1969's "Get On The Line" is my top pick among the Archies' album tracks, and it's second only to "Jingle Jangle" in my overall estimation of the output of Riverdale's Finest. It's infectious, and it implies a sense of greater purpose. It bears a superficial resemblance to Neil Diamond's "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show" (also from '69), just in terms of a shared vibe and a shared call to faith in something larger and better.

We started something

Gonna get it together

Every man and woman, boy and girl

Lovin' one another

All the sisters and the brothers

Lovin' one another 'round the world

Get on the line!

Get on the line for love, hey!

Get on the line!

Get on the line for love, hey!

The sun is rising

On a brand new morning

Got to tell the people everywhere

Got to pass it on

Before all hope is gone

Let the light go by you if you dare

Get on the line...!

"Get on the line for love." Words to live by. Especially right now.

And if you think I mean something political when I say "especially right now," with the imminent, plausible concern that in two weeks American voters may choose to repeat the grievous error of 2016, double down on the worst-ever self-inflicted wound in this nation's history....

...Yeah. You can bet your ass I mean something political. Harris/Walz 2024. Get on the line. We are NOT going back.

GET ON THE LINE...!!

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. 

My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

BOPPIN' PLAYS THE HITS! My 25 All-Time Most-Viewed Posts

Above image by Tyrone Biljan, courtesy of 13thdimension.com

My clinically stupid commitment to keep a daily blog commenced on January 18, 2016. I haven't missed a day yet. 

Along the way, a few of my posts have found an audience. Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) passed the one million clicks mark in January, and continues to amass views on its own modest scale. Sure, some posts draw the cyber equivalent of bupkis. Some draw thousands.

These are the twenty-five Boppin' posts that have drawn the most traffic. The list is based on what Blogger's logistics tell me, and comparing viewer stats for each individual post. The result does not match what Blogger lists publicly in the Popular Posts columns on the blog page itself. 

Stupid algorithms. 

I don't know which list is more accurate, but the list I've compiled below is based on what analytics claim as accumulated clicks for each post. Right or wrong: Let's BOP!

HONORABLE MENTION: THE KINKS and QUICK TAKES FOR K

Two posts in my series The Everlasting First fell short of making our countdown, but there's an asterisk that would have placed them. Both The Everlasting First: Quick Takes For K [music edition] (March 3, 2017) and The Everlasting First: The Kinks (March 6, 2018) would have been Top 40 posts on their own. But they were originally a single post, with the Kinks bit the featured part. I revamped the format for The Everlasting First in 2018, retroactively separating main features from Quick Takes. If I hadn't done that, the combined stats would have lifted the original Kinks plus Quick Takes post to # 8 overall.

25. VIRTUAL TICKET STUB GALLERY: THE RAMONES, THE RUNAWAYS, and THE FLASHCUBES (1/25/2017)

24. THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! The Dave Clark Five, "Any Way You Want It" [1/10/17]

23. THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT! THE HISTORY OF POWER POP [2/25/2016]

22. SINGERS, SUPERHEROES, AND SONGS ON THE RADIO: My Life In Pop Culture, The 1960s [4/2/2016]

21. ONCE UPON A ONCE-IN-A-WHILE: My 25 Favorite Monkees Tracks [9/13/2017]

20. ON BROADWAY [6/17/2016]

19. HE BUYS EVERY ROCK 'N' ROLL BOOK ON THE MAGAZINE STANDS, PART 3: Power Pop Means Pop With POWER! (Not Some Whimpering Simp In A Beatles Haircut) [3/9/2018]

18. GAME SHOWS, PART TWO: MTV'S REMOTE CONTROL [3/8/2018]

17. MAIN STREET RECORDS, BROCKPORT, NY [1/26/2016]

16. THE MONKEES BRING THE SUMMER: A GIRL I KNEW SOMEWHERE [5/4/2016]

15. AMAZING HEROES: Who's...WHO?! Lesser-Known Characters In The DC Comics Universe [6/3/2016]

14. PAT DiNIZIO [a guest tribute by RICH FIRESTONE] [12/14/2017]

Pat DiNizio, State Theater, Falls Church, VA. January, 2012. Photo courtesy Laura Lynn Music Photography

13. THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! The Searchers, "Hearts In Her Eyes" [3/14/2018]

12. MY ALL-TIME HOT 100 [With An Asterisk] [9/11/2018]

11. MOVIES IN MY MIND [BEHIND THE SCENES]: The Fictional Players In JUKEBOX EXPRESS [2/15/2018]

(NOTE: This was an annotation for a previous flight of fancy called Jukebox Express; the annotation drew considerably more clicks than its source material did.)

10. THE MONKEES: Me And Magdalena [5/20/2016]

9. THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Badfinger, "Baby Blue" [10/27/2016]

(NOTE: This was the very first entry in my long-running Greatest Record Ever Made! series, dedicated to the notion that an infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. And they've GOTTA take turns! They're records! That's what records do!

You see a few other GREM entries sprinkled within this Top 25, and there have been dozens of others that have appeared on this blog, and still a bunch more that have not. I have written a book called The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1); that book is in the hands of a potential publisher. As always: Here's hopin'. And I guess that's all I have to say.)

8. THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Baron Daemon and the Vampires, "The Transylvania Twist" [10/31/2017]

7. THE MONKEES: GOOD TIMES! review [5/26/2016]

6. THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! The First Class, "Beach Baby" [2/24/2017]

5. THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! The Smithereens, "Behind The Wall Of Sleep" [7/10/2019]

4. THE FLAMIN' GROOVIES, PART 1: Red-Hot & Groovy [5/26/2018]

(NOTE: I've always thought it weird that this introductory piece got so much more traction than PART 2, which was my 1993 interview with the Groovies' Cyril Jordan.)

3. THE MONKEES: Welcome To The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame [9/10/2016]

2. BATMAN MEETS THE MONKEES [4/14/2017]

1. AN INFORMAL HISTORY OF BUBBLEGUM MUSIC [7/30/2016]

And let me tell ya: This wasn't even close, and it doesn't even account for additional clicks from when I presented the piece in serialized form. This bubblegum history, which I originally wrote for Goldmine magazine in 1997, is certifiably my greatest hit. An edited version also appeared in the 2001 book Bubblegum Music Is The Naked Truth.

BONUS TRACKS!!

A good retrospective plays the hits. A great retrospective adds deeper cuts. These are a few of my favorite Boppin' posts that bubbled under--in some case WAY under--our Top 25:

THE FLASHCUBES: A Brighter Light In My Mind [11/23/2016]

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Material Issue, "Kim The Waitress" [8/1//2018]

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Eytan Mirsky, "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" [1/17/2019]

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Stevie Wonder, "I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever" [7/21/2020]

I've Got The Music In Me (And That's Where It's Gonna Stay) [1/21/2017]

And what may be my # 1 favorite:

The Road To GOLDMINE [12/20/2016]

Your Boppin' may vary. But there's always tomorrow. And the next day. And the next....

My first book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones was published in 2023. I don't think it would have happened if not for this blog. Will The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) be next? Stay tuned....

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. 

Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!! https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/

If it's true that one book leads to another, my next book will be The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Stay tuned. Your turn is coming.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

POP-A-LOOZA! BUBBLEGUM MUSIC IS THE NAKED TRUTH: The Audio Companion

 

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is a look back at my notes for a proposed CD compilation to accompany the 2001 book Bubblegum Music Is The Naked Truth.

As we discussed here, all of this bubblegum stuff came in the aftermath of my informal history of bubblegum music, which was published in Goldmine in 1997 and subsequently edited to a shorter form for its inclusion in Bubblegum Music Is The Naked Truth. The bubblegum compilation ideas discussed in today's shared post took place after the unrelated bubblegum compilation proposal we chatted about last week.

A near-future shared post will recount one more adventure in trying (and failing) to compile various-artists pop CDs. Today, the aborted audio companion for Bubblegum Music Is The Naked Truth is the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

POP-A-LOOZA! BUBBLE GUM WORLD: The Best Of Buddah Bubblegum

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is a look back at how I almost compiled a various-artists bubblegum CD for BMG Europe: Bubble Gum World: The Best Of Buddah Bubblegum.

This unfinished and abandoned gig came about in the aftermath of Goldmine's 1997 publication of "An Informal History Of Bubblegum Music," my extensive retrospective of the chewy-chewy-thick-n-chewy genre. I still regret the combination of my own inexperience and market reality that doomed the CD project. Bubble Gum World had potential to be a very cool compilation.

But that's all Bazooka under the bridge now. You can read a little supplemental bubblegum material in my flight of fancy "The Archies: An American Band," my celebration of the comic book Archie Meets Ramones, Greatest Record Ever Made! spotlights on the Rare Breed's "Beg, Borrow And Steal" and Crazy Elephant's "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'," and my recollection of how I first encountered the music of the Ohio Express.

A shorter edit of my bubblegum history appeared in the 2001 book Bubblegum Music Is The Naked Truth. About five years ago, I recalled the pleasant experience of being a contributor to that book:

"For the 2001 book Bubblegum Music Is The Naked Truth, I allowed editors Kim Cooper and David Smay to create an edit of my 1997 Goldmine bubblegum history, I re-wrote a history of the Bay City Rollers ("Rollermania: A Hard D-A-Y's Night") that had been my first feature article for Goldmine in 1987, and collaborated with writer Gary Pig Gold on a new piece about the Monkees. I also wrote essential-listening recommendations for the Monkees and Rollers, and contributed ideas for the book's superswell Bubblegum 100 (including such essentials as "Pop Rocks 'n' Pepsi," "The Go-Go's In Their Underwear," "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots," "Special Guest Bat-Villains," and--of course!--"The Ramones"). It was enormous fun to be involved with this project. 

"When the book was released in August of '01, my This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio co-host Dana and I drove down to New York for the East Coast book release party, and met writer Becky Ebencamp and musicians Tony Levanthal (of the Mockers), Mark Bacino, and Eytan Mirsky. Just missed a chance to meet the Smithereens' drummer Dennis Diken because I was too shy to introduce myself.

"I remember leaving Beauty Bar, where the book release party had been, and driving past a sign for the World Trade Center. The sight of that sign stuck with me for some reason. A few weeks later, the World Trade Center was no more. Some time after that, in the miserable aftermath of 9/11, a radio station downstate wanted some lighter fare to divert everyone from the gnawing ache we all felt inside. So they did a phone interview with me about the book and its frothy subject matter. It was as close to being a star as I'll ever get."

I have another Bubblegum Music Is The Naked Truth memory to share in a near-future Pop-A-Looza post, as well as another unrelated (but also aborted) adventure in slappin' together pop compilations. But for now, the brief saga of an ultimately imaginary CD called Bubble Gum World: The Best Of Buddah Bubblegum provides the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl