Reggae cover of The Archies mega-hit? Oh go on then.
Label: Jay Boy
Year of Release: 1969
You all know the drill by now - if there's a massive hit, someone, somewhere has done a reggae cover version of it. Sometimes they'll be slow off the mark, issuing contemplative dub excursions of Kenny Rogers songs decades after they first hit big. On other occasions, they'll strike while the iron is hot and snatch the big pop hit of the day from the writer's hands within moments of its descent down the Top 40.
The Sugarlumps, whoever they may be (a studio group, I assume?) barely let the charts cool down from The Archies dominance at number one before rushing this one into the shops, and it has to be said, its a strong take. Chirpy, homespun and apparently sincere, it seems they were able to look beyond the sneering and scoffing about the "bubblegum" hit and hear it for what it was; a bona fide great pop song. The song lilts, bounces and skips its way from beginning to end with an enjoyable respect; if this was a cynical attempt to sell a lot of records, the group have managed to disguise their motivations well. That said, anyone expecting to hear deep, heavy reggae here is obviously going to be disappointed.
Sadly, there's no dub version on the flip and we're left with the strangely rough and ready original track "Can't We Be Friends" instead, which sounds like a one-take effort to get the thing down on tape. Nonetheless, it's got quite a few fans online.
The identity of The Sugarlumps isn't clear, but they managed one further single on Jay Boy, the considerably more doomy "Satan's People".
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1 comment:
Interesting I've seen another reggae version on a few wants lists by Silver & Noreen who at least waited for the original to exit the hit parade in 1970 before release, not sure if I've heard it though.
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