The Archies

Though recording career of the Archies lasted only 4 years , their most popular song Sugar Sugar has managed to sink deeply into the public psyche.
Even after 40 years it is a popular choice for advertising and date signatures in TV and film.
Not surprisingly since it was the biggest pop hit of 1969.
The Archie’s recording career was quite fleeting compared to the comic and the actual TV cartoon show that spawned the band,
Archie Andrews and his High School buddies have been in print since December 1941, even though the TV show that created the hits was centered around Archie Andrews and his band, it only ran for 17- 22 minute shows and continued on until 1977 in other formats other than musical.
Having a peak recording career that only lasted from 1968 to 1972
The Archies had 2 Top 10 singles (Sugar, Sugar and Jingle Jangle) and two other top 40 hits (Bang-Shang-A-Lang and Who’s your Baby?) and had their songs covered by various artists notably Sugar, Sugar by Bob Marley and Get on the Line by The Sweet
In their prime a popular band with heaps of earning potential, with comics, cartoon show and top 10 hits. Even though they are hailed as marketing phenomenon only one attempt has been made to ride the Archie train of nostalgia, a rather lame Christmas album in 2008.
ADDENDUM - July 2015: Since the writing this Archie comics have had a renaissance with titles like Afterlife with Archie and Archie Vs Predator. Pushing their brands popularity once again skyward.

ADDENDUM - July 2015: Since the writing this Archie comics have had a renaissance with titles like Afterlife with Archie and Archie Vs Predator. Pushing their brands popularity once again skyward.

Band Logos

Band logos
Some have become iconic, whether by sheer popularity or radio friendly flogging.
Of all the millions of band logos that exist it is hard to define what makes the perfect band identifier?

The Beatles logo though simplistic in design has arguably become the most recognized band symbol in the world, right up there with Coca Cola, Mickey Mouse (or should I say Disney these days) and Microsoft. This even worked for the Beatles record company by just using the simple picture of an apple.

Some bands such as the Rolling Stones don't even need to mention their name just a notable body part from one of the members. 
Few have managed to do this but every no and again people like Prince (during his TAFKAP phase) and 70s punks the Misfits manage to produce something that captures the punters attention and still seen on TShirts everywhere (sans title of course).

The you also get the bands that are so huge that a symbol of one of their 

albums is enough to identify them as per this example from Led Zepplin, the personal symbol that is supposed to identify guitarist Jimmy Page.

Others go for basic bold type and border and let the music do the talking and by default and constant use become iconic in their own right,.

Other bands use stylized writing to portray their music and style well documented here by these bands.

 
Whilst some bands like Green Day don’t even bother and release a new banner with just about every record, which is a clever idea as each phase of the bands career is easily identified.

Then there are the Metal bands and their million sub genres , it’s a pity they don’t diverse a little bit.

This link is provides a countdown of Gigwise's favourite 50 band logos and gives reasoning to their decisions.
Better than any "Best Cartoon Band" Lists I come across lately.

For more info and a definitely more concise list than this cobbled together effort by me , click this link for ID the ultimate book of band logos.

Click on the pdf option on the page to view for free.

Gorillaz the awful truth

 found this on the Gorillaz fan forum, I found it highly amusing

if not misguided.

PARALLELS BETWEEN GORILLAZ AND THE BEATLES!

Here are some of the examples given...

Here's something i discovered and added to the conspiracy

The seems to be some startling similarities when it comes to one certain Yellow Submarine

Yellow Submarine from 1967 (1st + 2nd image) the submarine from Plastic beach (2010) and below the sub in the landfill outside Kong Studios from Demon Days (2005)Notice the periscopes from the bridge.

 the logo from the Gorillaz new Plastic Beach fan club

Fascinating!