1968 Andy Kim – Baby How’d We Ever Get This Way
Andrew Youakim grew up in Montreal and began using the stage name Andy Kim to hide his Lebanese heritage. He began working in the infamous Brill Building as a songwriter in the early sixties. He released a few singles beginning in 1963, but nothing charted for four or five years. He co-wrote Baby How’d We Ever Get This Way with Jeff Barry and that single peaked at #21 on the Hot 100 in 1968.
Andy’s more important achievement in 1968 came when he and Jeff co-wrote another song, Sugar Sugar. Don Kirshner tried to get the Mickey Dolenz and the Monkees to record the song, but sadly, the group split from Don before recording the song. Instead, Don used a studio musician group to record the song with Ron Dante singing lead and Andy and Toni Wine singing backup vocals. The song was placed on the first Archies album, Everything’s Archie. That version of the song got released as the cartoon group’s first single and topped the charts almost everywhere. It became the number one record for the entire year. Mickey did finally record the song on a solo album in 2012, but almost nobody noticed.
Andy struggled to get additional hit singles, but finally reached the top ten on the Hot 100 in 1969 with his remake of the Ronettes’ Baby, I Love You, which sold a million copies and topped the charts in Canada.
His biggest hit was Rock Me Gently, which topped the Hot 100 in 1974. In 2007, Jeep sped up Andy’s recording of the single and used it in a funny commercial that had a bunch of critters singing along with the song.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Kim
My books are on sale on Amazon (or free with Kindle Unlimited) and contain a lot more Lost or Forgotten Oldies. You can visit my author page to see them and you can read them for free with Kindle Unlimited!
What Was Left In 