2000 Great Songs #1432: Waldo P. Emerson Jones
While fictitious cartoon band The Archies are generally considered merely the one-hit wonder responsible for " Sugar Sugar ," there are actually a fistful of perfectly respectable and enjoyable bubblegum pop tunes spread across the five records released under the Archies' byline. While many are equally meritorious numbers just shy of the indisputable pop genius of "Sugar," I'm partial to "Waldo P. Emerson Jones," off their fourth LP, 1970's Sunshine . Like most of the "band's" songs, it's written by prolific songwriter Jeff Barry (with a co-write from songwriter and sometimes pop star Andy Kim), meaning it's of course an insanely catchy earworm you'll be humming all day (or, in my case, some 40 years). And it's lyrically fun as well, a grudging admiration-slash-put-down of the local golden boy (not a far remove from the Kinks ' "David Watts"), which slips in some clever name-checks. Yeah, like all b...
