Every day from now until Spring, I will play a song from each year from 1940-2020. I’ll also write a little bit about the song and why I chose it to represent that year.
1969 was the first year I remember actually knowing what year it was. ( Perhaps because I started Kindergarten that year) Before then though, I had a few memories but I was never cognizant of the time. For a lot of people who were old enough to be aware of the world around them, it was a pretty tough year. The Vietnam war was in full swing and Nixon failed to keep his promise to end it after getting reelected. The RFK and MLK murders were just the year before, The Manson murders would happen that summer. People had become disillusioned and a pall of malaise seemed to linger. This might explain why a lot of stuff in popular culture had become inane. People just wanted escapism.
You could make the argument that is why “bubblegum” music was becoming popular. It marketed primarily to children and pre-teens, but the overt poppy sound was also something adults could sink their mind in to.
I personally didn’t care for the Archies (the cartoon series) that much (albeit I did crush on Veronica pretty hard) In the mid-70s they had a series called “The U.S. of Archie” where the gang would go back in time and meet prominent figures in American History. That show I geeked out on. But the original Archies not so much, As for the song “Sugar, Sugar” I feel about it as I do its namesake. A lot of fun in small doses too much and I need insulin. But the song’s kind of a guilty pleasure. I still can’t listen to it without tapping my feet.
