In 1945, a future hitmaker was born in Staten Island, N.Y., decades before his voice would become famous as the sound of a band that didn’t actually exist.
Ron Dante, the real-life lead singer behind fictional cartoon group The Archies, turns 81 on Aug. 22.
Dante supplied the lead vocals for The Archies’ 1969 smash “Sugar, Sugar,” which became the No. 1-selling single of the year in the United States. But his unusual career didn’t end when the cartoon band’s heyday did. He went on to become a successful producer, working closely with both Barry Manilow and Cher.
Ron Dante Was the Real Voice Behind The Archies
Born Carmine John Granito on Aug. 22, 1945, Dante grew up in a large Italian-American family on Staten Island. Although no one in his family worked professionally in music, he recalled that “everybody sang” when he was growing up.
Elvis Presley became one of Dante’s earliest inspirations, prompting him to pick up the guitar. He was also influenced by The Platters, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino and especially The Everly Brothers, he told New Jersey Stage in 2020.
Dante eventually became a staff singer and songwriter for music impresario Don Kirshner, who would give him the opportunity that changed his life.
After hearing Kirshner was developing an animated TV project based on the Archie Comics characters, Dante called and asked to audition as the group’s lead singer.
“I went and auditioned and got the part,” Dante told New Jersey Stage.
The result was an unusual kind of stardom. Audiences knew The Archies, but they didn’t necessarily know the man whose voice they were hearing.
Dante told Culture Sonar in 2021 that he initially worried too much attention from the project might limit his career, so when The Archies’ records began climbing the charts, “I just hid.”
Then came “Sugar, Sugar.”
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Written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim, the irresistible confection spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and finished 1969 as the year’s No. 1 single.
Dante told Goldmine Magazine that he deliberately approached the lead vocal with a softer style inspired by Donovan’s delivery on songs such as “Mellow Yellow.” He also shot down a long-running story that “Sugar, Sugar” had first been offered to The Monkees, saying he had confirmed with Barry that the rumor wasn’t true.
Ron Dante Had 2 Top 10 Hits at the Same Time
Even while “Sugar, Sugar” was dominating the airwaves, Dante was essentially competing against himself.
In 1969, he recorded “Tracy” under another fabricated group name, The Cuff Links. Dante created the sound of an entire vocal group by repeatedly overdubbing his own voice.
“I did, maybe, two dozen voices that night,” he recalled, explaining that his background in doo-wop helped him imagine the different vocal parts and harmonies.
For three weeks that October, Dante had two songs simultaneously in the Billboard Hot 100’s Top 10: “Tracy” and “Sugar, Sugar.” Remarkably, neither record credited Dante by name as its singer.
His voice was also hiding in plain sight elsewhere. Dante became a prolific commercial singer, recording jingles for brands including Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper, Coppertone and McDonald’s. One of his biggest was McDonald’s “You Deserve a Break Today.”
And one commercial session would help lead Dante into the next major phase of his career.
Ron Dante Helped Launch Barry Manilow’s Career
During a Coca-Cola jingle session, Dante found himself singing alongside Valerie Simpson, Melissa Manchester and a then-aspiring Barry Manilow. Dante and Manilow struck up a friendship that eventually became a hugely successful producing partnership.
Dante later recalled that he helped Manilow secure a record deal as a solo artist and co-produced his recordings during the singer’s breakthrough years. After an initial album failed to take off, they got another opportunity.
That second chance produced “Mandy.”
“Mandy” became Manilow’s first No. 1 hit, and Dante wasn’t only behind the control board. He also sang backup on the record.
“In my heart, it’s got to be ‘Mandy,'” Dante told New Jersey Stage when asked to choose his favorite Manilow hit, calling it the “breakthrough career-making record” for the singer.
Dante continued producing Manilow through a string of successful albums and sang backup on his records, even joking that when female voices can be heard on “Copacabana,” “I’m in the girl group singing with them!”
Ron Dante Went on to Produce Cher
Dante’s production career also brought him into the studio with another superstar: Cher.
He worked on Cher’s 1979 album Take Me Home, which returned the singer to the Top 10 with its disco title track.
Dante later described Cher as his favorite memory of working with the many major artists who crossed his path, remembering her as both extraordinarily famous and remarkably easy to work with.
“Working with Cher was like working with the most famous woman in the world,” he told New Jersey Stage. “She was just the nicest person.”
One particular phone call stuck with him.
Dante recalled Cher calling him at 3 a.m. to play him “Too Far Gone,” a deeply personal song she had written about her ex-husband Gregg Allman. Cher asked whether they could record it, and Dante immediately agreed. The song ultimately appeared on Take Me Home.
Speaking with Goldmine, Dante also remembered Cher as a consummate professional who arrived on time and stayed in the studio for as long as the sessions required. Even visits from Sonny Bono or her then-boyfriend Gene Simmons didn’t distract her for long before she returned to work.
Ron Dante’s Career Came Full Circle
Dante’s résumé continued to grow well beyond The Archies, Manilow and Cher. His production work included other major artists, and in 1978 he produced the Tony Award-winning Broadway revue Ain’t Misbehavin’.
Decades later, he returned to performing the songs that had made his voice famous.
After appearing on the Happy Together Tour, Dante was asked in 2018 to step in for Howard Kaylan as lead singer of The Turtles.
“I almost dropped the phone when they asked me,” Dante recalled. The move allowed him to go from opening concerts with his Archies songs to closing them by singing The Turtles’ catalog.
It’s a fitting late-career chapter for a singer whose name was once deliberately kept out of sight.
More than five decades after millions of listeners heard Ron Dante’s voice without necessarily knowing who he was, the man behind one of the most famous fictional bands in pop history has built a very real legacy.
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