Bubblegum’s Renaissance Man
The following originally appeared in the GRAND JUNCTION FREE PRESS:
All roads lead to Rome, or so goes the old saying. But in the disparate domains of music, theatre and literature, all roads lead to Ron Dante.
Few people can claim to have scored Top 40 hits as a member of three different bands… won multiple Tony Awards for producing top-notch Broadway fare like AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ and CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD… produced platinum-selling songs by one of the 1970s’ most successful artists… and published the PARIS REVIEW, the esteemed magazine that has delighted literati with the fiction and poetry of authors like Philip Roth and Samuel Beckett. His name may not be well-known, but Dante’s salient status as a triple-threat performer, producer and publisher is unparalleled.
Dante was born in New York City 60 years ago as Carmine Granito, but changed his name in the late 1950s while playing with his first band, the Persuaders. After being signed with manager (and former child actor) Bobby Breen, Dante came to the attention of pop music impresario Don Kirshner, who hired Dante as a demo singer.
Meanwhile, in 1964, Dante began to record singles (as “Ronnie Dante”) for Gene Pitney’s label, Musicor. But popular success was elusive until the following year, when Dante sang lead on a one-off novelty record for Roulette Records. “Leader of the Laundromat” was a parody of the Shangri-Las’ hit “Leader of the Pack,” and was credited to the Detergents. Dante’s dopy delivery of the song’s lyrics of love amidst the dryers helped land it at #19 on Billboard’s Hot 100. At the time, Dante could have no idea that his future would be dramatically shaped by the man who wrote the song on which “Laundromat” was based.
Jeff Barry wrote “Leader of the Pack” with his then-wife Ellie Greenwich, along with other classics of the girl group era like “Da Doo Ron Ron,” “Baby I Love You” and “Chapel of Love.” In the mid-1960s, Barry produced hits by the Monkees and Neil Diamond for Kirshner who, after the Monkees began to assert their creative autonomy, put Barry in charge of creating a pop band that would never talk back.
After signing a deal with Archie Comics, Barry and Kirshner began searching for the musicians who would give voice to Archie Andrews and the other Riverdale High regulars who comprised the cartoon combo, the Archies. In three years, the Archies produced five albums and six hit singles, including the timeless “Sugar Sugar.” But the only musician who remained a constant fixture in their recordings was the voice of Archie himself, Ron Dante, who also continued singing with other bands even while bopping next to Betty and Veronica. In 1970, while “Sugar Sugar” was still dominating pop radio playlists, Dante found himself in the unique position of singing lead on two Top 10 hits by different bands when the Cuff Links’ confection “Tracy” went to #9.
In the 1970s, Dante’s musical success continued when he formed a musical partnership with singer-songwriter Barry Manilow. Dante manned the knobs for all of Manilow’s best-selling albums from 1974 to 1981. Also during the 1970s, the pop polymath branched out… first into publishing when he took the reins of the PARIS REVIEW, and then into theatrical production when he teamed with former soap opera actor and now oft-parodied host of INSIDE THE ACTORS’ STUDIO James Lipton to mount the original Broadway run of AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’, based on the works of Fats Waller.