Archive for the ‘Bubble Gum Rock’ Category

Before Spice Girls there was Josie, Melody and Valerie better known as Josie and the Pussycats. An animated all girl bubble gum band that first aired on CBS in 1970 and was running for 7 long years but it was however re-conceptualized in 1972 as Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space. And who knew that the singing voice of Melody was non-other than Cheryl Ladd that we came to love in Charlie’s Angels.

The Archies cartoon started in 1968 and they are considered one of the first animated Bubble Gum Rock band to jam during their show. The actual music for the band was sung by Ron Dante and was released as singles and records. The song Sugar, Sugar was a huge hit and a number 1 single for 4 weeks in 1969. The song was supposedly offered by the producer, Ron Kushner to the Monkees who refused to record it.

You can read more about it here.

The Archies, they’re not. They are, however, four hillbilly cats who love to rock. Yeah, yeah, we know how some of you feel about animated Bubblegum Rock bands. Are you forgetting that this is a site for kids after all?

One of Hanna-Barbera’s least known shows, the Cattanooga Cats, never had the popularity of the very similar, Banana Splits. Lead singer/guitarist Country was voiced by Bill Callaway, who also was the voice of Aquaman on the Superfriends. The drummer Groove was voiced by none other than Casey Kasem, who was also on the Superfriends, as the voice of Robin.

The show’s catchy tunes were penned and performed by music legend Mike Curb, who also produced for the likes of Roy Orbison and Sammy Davis Jr.  Curb is also known to be responsible for signing the group WAR to a contract as well as becoming Lieutenant Governor of California from 1979-1983.