2. The Archies
The Archies were a band made famous first in the comic series Archie. Based on the all-American teenagers of Riverdale, USA The Archies somehow managed to put aside their petty squabbles, girl problems, social standings and Jughead to create a decent bubble-gum pop rock and roll group in the late 60's.
Their most famous hit was "Sugar, Sugar", which in this clip really shows how well cartoon microphones can change the pitch of a teenage lead singer's voice. It went to #1 on the pop chart in 1969 and sold over six million copies. This was also the year In Billboard's Hot 100, it was ranked as the number one song of that year and happens to be the only time a fictional band ever claimed Billboard's annual Hot 100 top spot. For the record, the top albums of 1969 were Abbey Road, Led Zeppelin II and Let It Bleed, showing that even way back in 1969, radio station playlists were f^#$'d up. Other Top 40 songs released by the comic band included "Who's Your Baby?" (U.S. #40), "Bang-Shang-A-Lang" (U.S. #22), and "Jingle Jangle" (U.S. #10). The Archies released 7 albums in the real world, most recently a Christmas album in 2008. Truthfully, it was a parade of studio musicians that were hired to make up the fictional Archies group. Most of the male lead vocals were provided Ron Dante, who also fronted a band called the Cuff Links that made zero impact on sales in Riverdale, no matter what hijinks his band got into.