Forgotten Favorites #31: When A Cover Outperforms The Original

Posted August 16, 2012 by Dadditudes Staff in Forgotten Favorites

We’re bringing you three great songs today, all associated directly or indirectly with the same artist. This is one of those days when most of us will learn something new from the Forgotten Favorite.

In 1963, The Ronettes release what would become one of their signature songs, “Baby I Love You”. The tune hit #24 for the group. Just six years later, it would be re-recorded by another artist, who turned it into a Top Ten hit.

In 1969, “Baby I Love You” became the first Gold Record for Andy Kim, who would later hit #1 in Billboard with “Rock Me Gently”. But did you know that in ’69, Andy Kim had even bigger chart success with a song he co-wrote? A song that was performed by a band that didn’t really exist? The tune that he co-wrote with Jeff Barry was credited to The Archies, and part of their animated series on CBS. Here’s what you may not have known: Among the myriad vocalists on “Sugar Sugar” are Ron Dante, Andy Kim, Jeff Barry, Toni White, and Carole King (yes, the Carole King) – and there were others, too. ”Sugar, Sugar” stayed on top of the charts for four weeks, and was the #1 song of the year in 1969.

So for today’s Forgotten Favorite, we’ll happily give you some great performance footage of Andy Kim’s “Baby I Love You”, one of those rare instances where the cover outperformed the original. And, just for fun, we’ll throw in “Rock Me Gently” and “Sugar, Sugar” as well.