I'M A BETTY MAN

Lest we forget, even highly revered singers and songwriters, no matter how righteous and universally heralded, had to start somewhere. That goes for Bob Marley with the early Wailers, as well as Darby Crash and the Germs, both of whom covered the Archies' "Sugar Sugar." Really, wouldn't you have loved being a fly on the wall in the Wailers band practice when that discussion came up? Or the Germs' band practice [sic]? I was actually looking for the Alex Chilton version last night when I ran into the Wailers' version, and the Germs' version was really just an afterthought. (The "Germicide" live set from the Whisky, where their version originates, wasn't their first gig as commonly thought, it was their second. Just setting the record straight.) Here's those two versions, along with a couple others. The Go Home Productions thing, "Velvet Sugar" is a mash-up of the Archies and the Velvet Underground. (You can nab the full length set of twenty mash-ups that includes it here. A link to page with complete listing below.) Wilson Picket's down there because, I don't know, because of the odd intro I guess. Nitpicker bonus: One thing that I found weird is that the two Archies versions down there are different. Even if they sound much the same, the "We're gonna make love so sweet" singers, towards the end of the song, are completely different. I believe the first version to be the one that was on the radio. At any rate, that's the one that has the only singer that sounds like they really could possibly make love so sweet.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:

The Wailers - Sugar Sugar mp3 at A Barrel of Nails
The Germs - Sugar Sugar (live) (streaming) at YouTube
The Archies - Sugar Sugar mp3 at Vdweijde.nl Original version. (File incorrectly labeled as the Monkees)
The Archies - Sugar Sugar mp3 at LZCenter Re-recorded (cover?)
Go Home Productions - Velvet Sugar (streaming) at YouTube
Wilson Pickett - Sugar Sugar mp3 at Libsyn.com
Full length download:
Go Home Productions - This Was Pop (2002-2007) at Go Home Productions Twenty mash ups including Velvet Sugar, in a zip. Scroll about a third down the page.
Visit:

The Archies at Wikipedia