January 20, 2025 • 52 mins
An encore episode with number one hit-making singer/composer/producer RON DANTE of The Archies, The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan, and The Cuff Links, sharing stories about hits like "Sugar, Sugar" and "Tracy," as well as legends like Barry Manilow, Mick Jagger, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Don Kirshner, Carole King, and many others.
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Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, we love Hanna
Barbera. Welcome to the fantastic world
of Hanna and Barbera. A celebration of Bill Hanna, Joe
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Barbera and the thousands of people, past and present, who
have shared in their entertainment tradition.
And now your host, Greg Airbar. Hi, this is Greg Airbar.
Welcome to the fantastic world. I want to take a few minutes
just to thank you again for a wonderful first year.
We've been on over a year. We hope you've enjoyed it and I
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really want to thank you for allyour kindness, your
subscriptions and likes online. Nice comments.
Please keep them coming because that helps the show keep on
rolling. And we're going to roll a show
that has become a favorite. This is the one we did with Ron
Dante where he talked about the amazing Chan and the Chan clan,
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his incredible career on records, on television, all
kinds of things. So here he is again, the
extraordinarily nice as well as extremely talented Ron Dante.
Hi, Greg, good to be. Here, it's really great to have
you, and you're here because youwere the voice and music behind
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the musical interludes, the romps on the amazing Chan and
the Chan clan. And we will talk all about how
that happened. But first of all, there's so
much else. Ron was the voice of the
archies, the detergents, the cufflinks.
He was I'd like to teach the world to sing, and hundreds of
commercials produce Barry Manilow albums, produce Broadway
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shows. That's just the tip of the
iceberg. So first, I'd like to go back,
as I like to say, go back how you started, how you got
interested in music as a kid. Carmine Granito is your real
name, if you don't mind me revealing that.
I'm very proud of MyHeritage. I grew up in a an Italian
American family in Staten Island, NY, and every event
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there were people singing. Uncles were singing, my dad was
singing. Nobody did it professionally,
but I kind of liked singing. And the original reason I
started to play an instrument was I was playing Tarzan.
I fell out of a tree at 12 yearsold, busted my arm up, and the
doctor said it's going to be stiff all your life if you don't
play ball or you don't take up an instrument.
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So at the time I was a huge fan of Elvis and The Everly
Brothers. And I said, I think I'll take up
guitar, I'll try that. My dad got me a little guitar.
We put it through a webcore taperecorder, was my amplifier, and
I started to play guitar, took lessons, started to write some
songs. About a year later, I put
together a a Group, A teenage group called the Persuaders and
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we played all over the tri-statearea at Cy Oak Centers and
weddings and all kinds of thingsand doing all rock'n'roll.
And that's the way I kind of started.
It led me to a manager. My dad got me a manager who
happened to be up in the Brill Building area of New York City.
So I had my manager up there andI would go visit him.
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He's trying to get me some record deals.
He's trying to get me something.He was doing nothing for me.
His secretary said to me, she said, you know, there's a
publishing company right upstairs from us in this
building called Alden Music. And it's run by a guy named Don
Kirchner. And it's the hottest music
publishing company in the world right now.
Why don't you go up there and ask the secretary to audition?
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And I did, and they gave me an audition.
They gave me a little record, and they said, learn this song,
come back in a week. So I learned the song is one of
their songs. And I auditioned for their
songwriters who were on staff there, and they liked me.
And they said you could be our staff demo maker.
So they introduced me to Mr. DonKirschner.
And at 17 years old, I got a publishing contract and I was
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the staff demo maker. Wow.
Yeah. First time I walked in the
office, there was Neil Sedaka, Carole King and Tony Orlando in
cubicles writing songs and singing.
Yes, so that. Was the beginning.
That was an extraordinary place.Was that on 1650?
Also Broadway, they say. The Brill Building.
Was it literally the Brill Building?
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No, the Brill Building was across the street, directly
across the street, which I worked in.
A couple of years later I workedin the Brill Building for Bobby
Darin's publishing company. I was a staff songwriter.
But 1650 was a very hot building, had record companies,
managers, had a recording studioin the cellar.
So you can go down at night and record your stuff.
It was a very, very hot place. It's funny, I signed there and
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about within a year, Don Kirchner sold his publishing
company to Screen Gems Columbia.And we all moved to 5th Ave. 711
5th Ave. the Columbia Pictures building, and we had our own
cubicles there. And that's when we really got
involved in movies, TV shows. Even back then, you and the
staff were running on a paralleltrack with Hanna Barbera because
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when Screen Gems music was running at full speed, that's
where Jonny Angel and she can't find her keys came from for the
Donna Reed Show. That's where the, I guess Ozzie
Nelson invented the idea with Ricky of promoting music through
television, and it was really successful.
But sitcom after sitcom was introducing pop songs and they
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were shooting to #1 which culminated with probably the
Monkeys and the Partridge Familyand the Archies using TV.
But Hanna Barbera did too, because making with the Magilla
was arranged by Carole King and it was sung by Little Eva and it
was on the Magilla Gorilla Show.So wow, it's.
Very cool, very cool. I always thought that Eva copied
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Carole voice to the tee when shesang.
It sounded a lot like Carol. That's true.
We really got around us. Songwriters had lots of
opportunities. Bewitched was coming around.
You had a chance to write the theme song for Bewitched.
Bewitched, bewitched. You've got me in your spell.
Bewitched, bewitched. You know your crap so well.
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My friend Jack Keller got it with Howie Greenfield.
Howie Greenfield actually. And I did all the songs for the
Chant Clan. We did 11:50 songs for that
show. The influence of that area, the
Monkeys alone, and I'm also the Flying Nun.
The Flying Nun song came out of there.
Lester Sill and Howard Greenfield, Dominic Frontieri, A
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lot of those people wrote incredible, incredible songs and
themes. It's funny, they threw a party
when the Flying Nun debuted and I went to the party with Don
Kirschner and a few writers, andI met Sally Field.
Ow. She was a dog.
She was so. Cute.
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Everybody wanted to dates out the field.
I mean, it was just everybody's trying to buy her a drink, but
she was too young. You know, we were all teenagers.
We were all very young when thatwhen those things happened.
She was 20. Yeah, She was just 20 when she
did that show and they'd released a whole album.
I mean, I'm getting way off topic here, but I Flying Nun's a
personal favorite of mine because I got that album when it
came out. That was the essence of what
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these songwriters and talents could produce because every but
Ernie Freeman, all of these legendary people worked on that
as well as the Monkeys. And then we get to the Archies.
But did you work 9:00 to 5:00, go into the studio work?
What was a typical day there foryou?
We'd get in a little later, try to miss the traffic.
All the songwriters. Songwriters will night people.
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We don't work 9:00 to 5:00. You know, we come in about 11
and stay in the office and write.
And if we get onto a good tune or something, we'll just stay in
the office, you know, until 9:00or 10:00 at night, writing in
our cubicle because there was the place.
And we also knew that the next day we could play it for
somebody and say, Gee, can we doa demo on this song?
It's 4X. And usually they'd say, yes, we
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always had a budget, you know, for three or four musicians.
Go to a demo studio and record your songs.
It was a pretty exciting time. I remember walking down the
hallway and I heard somebody writing a song called 98.6.
OK, 98.6. And they were writing it, hey,
98.8. And I put my head in and I said,
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you know, you have the wrong temperature, but it sounds like
a hit song. You never can tell it was going
to come out of that. I have you to thank that and
Keith that right. They've gotten a piece of the
royalty. Did they give you like a what we
used to call a job requisition and say, OK, here's the song,
here's the idea, here's what it's for, go to it and then you
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did something decor a couple of things or what?
Oh yeah, down, Kirschner would say, to a bunch of us each week.
X is coming in, Mickey, most from England, is coming in.
He's producing the Animals, producing Herman's Hermits.
Write some songs for him we'll play them live for him if he
likes them we'll demo them and get them to him.
So Carole King and you know Barry man Cynthia Wildwood write
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we got to get out of this place.Carole King would write I'm into
something good so you never could tell what the
opportunities would have were great.
He'd also say there's ATV show coming up.
One of the things that we did what he said we're doing this
show based on The Beatles movie of Hard Day's night and it's
going to be called the monkeys. First of all, Ron want you to
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audition for it, which I did. I did a great video on it.
They sent it out to California. Unfortunately, Davy Jones got
that slot, you know, but it was fun to be even there.
He said, write some songs. I actually wrote songs for Davy
and we recorded him in New York City.
So those were fun times. We always had projects to work
for. And then sometimes we just make
them up ourselves. We just come up with a great
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song and we'd say to the, you know, Kirshner or the guy who
ran the the money, we say, can we go demo this song?
And 9 out of 10 times they'd listen and say, sure, go demo
that song. They were very open.
So you were in good company though as far as the monkeys,
because I think Steven Stills was turned down as well for
that. Everybody in New York City
audition. Every younger singer, male
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singer audition for the Monkeys.There were tons of videos being
done and unfortunately we didn'thave much of a chance because it
was all being done in Los Angeles.
Those producers and the guys whowere really the the important
people behind it, they wanted people who lived locally.
Except for Davy Jones, everybodyelse was from California.
Did that put a lot of pressure on when that show was needing?
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Because that became so much of Aphenomenon and it was needing
the songs and probably with everything else, were things
really starting to churn and wasthat sort of the peak or what?
It was a churn. You would churn them out.
Once the Monkeys debuted, every team of songwriters at Screen
Jams Columbia, under Kirchner's auspices, would start to write
for the Monkeys. That what an opportunity.
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Just get one on their album. The first album sold.
I want 3 million copies. Having just a one song on that
album could pay for your house for a year.
So we all tried it. We all did it.
The golden teams, as I called them, Man and Wild Greenfield
and Sedaka and Carole King and and Jerry Goffin, they were the
golden teams there. I mean, they were writing hits
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every week. Every few months there'd be
another huge song from them thatwas on the charts, that was
charting. We were the younger teens
opposite them. So we had to learn, you know,
how to learn to get up and writethose hits.
Were the golden teams generous about giving you guidance as you
were learning? No, never.
No, really. Never.
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Carole King would even talk to me and Barry Mann hated my
voice. I mean, they didn't like the
teens. I was 1718 and they were in
their 20s. They were married already and
they were also big time songwriters making a fortune.
I mean, Don Kirschner got each one of those teams, $1,000,000
guarantee from BMI, one year foreach of them.
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Each team, they got a guarantee that their songs would earn over
a million. So they gave them the million in
front. They were the unbelievable.
I mean, but they never helped the younger people.
No, they were not gracious aboutthat at all, you know.
So you nodded in the hall. That's the way it goes, yeah.
No, it's completely competitive.Carol wouldn't even acknowledge
your presence. It was.
Like, oh, not even a nod. That's the way it was.
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So do you remember some of the early songs that you were
getting onto vinyl, as they say,onto wax?
I got recorded by Gary Lewis andthe Playboys.
James Darren did one of my songs.
Bobby V recorded my songs JohnnyMathis, Jay and the Americans.
No big hits, but I was on B sides of some of the hits of
Freddie Cannon and I wrote a song for the B side of where the
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action is. Yeah, AB side got the same as an
A side, right? So yeah, you got paid no matter
what. So Melody Hill did as well as
sugar. Sugar, right?
It made as much money as Sugar Sugar, wow, if Sugar Sugar
knocked down a half, $1,000,000 for the riders.
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Melody Hill, Mark Barkin and Richie Adams got the.
Oh, so that would explain why Justine and Truck Driver were on
so many greatest hits compilations too.
Because they technically were, you know, million sellers too.
Absolutely, yeah. You're just moving up the ladder
doing that, but also at the sametime starting to do commercials
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and things like that, right? Yes, being in New York City and
at that time there was a huge commercial business.
Jingles were huge and they needed singers who sounded like
the radio, not like the old timeJingle singers who were very
homogenized, you know, very fourpart harmonies and stuff.
They wanted people who sounded like the radio.
So younger Jingle singers, as I was part of them, got the
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opportunity to show up, learn the Jingle and add our sound to
the new sound. So Pepsi, Coke, Doctor Pepper,
you name it, all went very current on their commercials.
And that's what my career exploded, especially after Sugar
Sugar happened. Everybody wanted the voice of
the archies on their commercials, so I was happy to
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do it. Your voice is very distinctive,
especially the I like to teach the world to sing.
You can hear Coca. Cola.
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I did a hundred of those. It was a very good time and they
were very generous to let me do leads sometimes, sometimes just
part of the background group, but always on them.
Yeah. It's an interesting situation
business wise in advertising with jingles because they don't
use them. It's kind of like theme songs.
They don't use them as often as they do and yet they're still
out there and it's still a greatway to sell a product.
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So it's not really an outdated way to do advertising.
You know it. It's really changed.
The intent is now to make normalpeople sing them.
You get a lot of that. They're not really good, but I
guess the population likes it orthe people who own the products
think it's working. It's communicating with the
population. But I really miss really good
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singers singing really good commercials.
I miss that a lot. And I think that business has
gone down so much that you just don't hear any great spots
anymore. I mean, I'm loving it.
That's not a spot, that's a phrase.
But it's not McDonald's. It's not Coke or Pepsi with some
of those the Pepsi campaigns that I did and in the early 70s
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you've got a lot to live campaigns.
It's in the Smithsonian under their audio files as legendary
commercials really. And yes, it'll be there forever.
How Linden did the voice over onmy.
Spots small town USA filled withpeople who get a big kick out of
the little things in life like porch swings, kids and Pepsi
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Cola. Pepsi gives them the taste and
energy. They come to a cola for Pepsi
generation. Come in at you going strong.
Put yourself behind the Pepsi. If you're living, you belong.
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You've got a lot to live, and Pepsi's got a lot to get.
You know, it's online. You can actually go online and
access some of those videos and audios of the greatest
commercials ever. You just check some of those
out. They're really high quality,
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high quality films. You know, those are the days
when they're doing incredible spots, videos, especially in
audio. I mean, look at the Budweiser
Clydesdale commercials. Even today you'll see one at the
Super Bowl maybe. And it stands out as one of the
finest product lines they've ever put out.
Those with the Dalmatian and, you know, riding along with the
Clydesdales and you'll hear my Budweiser commercial, Here comes
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the king here. Comes the king, comes the big
#1. Many of us had no idea we
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weren't just playing records to hear you.
We were hearing you throughout our our day on the radio and on
the television. You were ubiquitous.
You know, there was a radio station in New York City called
WABC, which was the one of the most powerful radio stations in
the country. At night you could hear it in
almost 16 states, and in one hour they would play both my
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Archie's records, my cufflinks records, Tracy, and two or three
of my commercials. So my mom would call me.
She says you're all over the radio today.
And she was right. It was like a unique moment in
time. So did she make you a big pot of
sauce? Mom was always very proud, so is
Dad. They were very proud that their
boy voice was all over the place.
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Well, they were so supportive. That's a blessing to have that.
Right from the beginning. Was leader of the laundromat the
first breakout sort of thing youdid with the detergents, or did
you have other singles we would remember you singing on before
that? No, that was the first hit and
it went top ten. And it's so sad that I'm Mary
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Weiss of the Shangri LA's who weparried it.
Her leader of the pack passed away.
Oh, it was such, so sad. We toured with the Shangri LA's,
the detergent Shangri LA's on a Dick Clark caravan of stars and
they would do their hit leader of the pack and then their show.
And then we come out and do leader of the laundromat and
everybody would laugh and they, you know, we'd have a great time
backstage, too. It was an interesting hit
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because it got me out touring, which I had never done, on a bus
with Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars on it was Freddie Cannon,
Little Anthony in The Imperials,Herman's Hermits.
We actually opened for The Rolling Stones in Philadelphia
one night. It was an amazing night.
We we went on just before The Rolling Stones and they were
throwing things at us because they wanted to see Mick, you
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know, they had satisfaction. It was one of the biggest hits
in the world. You know, it was all good
stories. So what leader of laundromat?
What year was that? 65. 65 And then Tracy, what was
that like 67? Tracy was 69.
Tracy. When I'm with you, something you
do bounces me off the ceiling, Tracy.
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Day after day. When you're this way, I get a
love and feeling. What did you have like 2-3 hits
on radio and you couldn't tell anybody because.
It was supposed to be anonymous.I was a studio singer.
I did maybe 20 groups during those years under different
names. They would usually my demos I
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did for these songwriters, they'd get them put out as
different groups. I had about 20 groups out at the
time, so the cufflinks and the Archie's, it was part of my
anonymity. I was singing jingles at the
time. So that was my real business and
they wanted me to maybe tour at the Archies.
But the comic book people wantedit to stay animated.
They don't want a live group outthere.
And as you've seen, there's never been a live group.
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No, there has never been a live Archie's group.
Ever You were singing for various demos and you were
singing for various things that became groups that they just
named, like Dawn. You know, Tony Orlando was
singing Candida and they just made-up the name Dawn.
And the song became such a hit. They had to find Joyce, Vincent
Wilson and tell me Hopkins to beDawn on the second album.
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In your case, you did that tons of times, and all of a sudden
Don Kirchner wanted the archies.Now, those of us who know the
history of the monkeys and the archies, it was getting to be a
rocky road with the monkeys. Terrible Rd.
Yeah, they completely rebelled. They were so famous, right?
So famous that they just went crazy.
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And they said, well, we can do it all.
Why should we have Carole King and Neil Sedaka and Neil Diamond
write our stuff? We can do it all.
So they went off and they did their thing and you know, that
was it. But Kirchner was a good thing
for them. I always applauded Donnie's
musical ability to make stars and get make writer stars, make
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singer stars. So one thing I wanted to say
about Don. You mentioned Don and Tony
Orlando, the girl who wrote Candida and sang as the group
with Tony Orlando was Tony Wine.She was the girl voice of the
Archies. Is fresh.
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And. Clean, great singer song, right?
She wrote Candida, of course. And a groovy kind of love.
On sugar sugar, she was both by the infer.
I'm going to make your life so sweet.
She sang it low and yet she's saying hi.
She was great on that. On Jingle Jangle I sang most of
the lead in falsetto because they cut the track in the wrong
key. Is that why?
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I said, guys, we just had a major hit with this sound on
Sugar Sugar. Why in the world would you want
me to sing the song in my falsetto and have Tony Wine do
the answers? Which that's the way we ping
pong the vocals. But that was Don Kirchner and
Jeff Berry, the writer, producers.
They came up with it and it was a hit, but it was completely
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different than the sugar sugar salad.
I always said we got to get backto that sugar sugar sound.
Yeah. Because.
Because that's the one that soldthe whole package.
You know, Bang Shang Alang also was a big hit.
This it was. It was my sound, you know, so I
never quite understood the thinking behind that.
But I've got 2 gold records up there on the wall, 1 Sugar Sugar
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and one is Jingle Jangle and I'mproud, I'm proud of both of
them. What's so cool about that record
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is that it's pretty much just you and Tony and that La La la,
the blend, it's beautiful. It gives me the chills.
It's so good. And that's all pretty much you
and her. It's just the two of us.
We want to check ourselves four or five times to make it sound
like the whole group, but it's just Tony, Wine and myself.
And we always blended. You know, Tony was there in the
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office when I signed with Don Kirchner, when I walked in and I
auditioned. She was part of the audition
process with a few of the other writers there.
But I remember we were the kids in the office.
She was 16, I was 17, and we stayed friends all those years.
And when the Archies came around, I was so happy to see
her in the studio with me doing all the backgrounds and all the
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records. The first couple of albums it
was just. You can hear the joy in our
voices because we. That is pure joy.
Sometimes you you will experience a work no matter what
the artistic work is and you just know it worked.
And and I play that over and over again that there are
certain songs you just want to play over and over again because
they just make you feel great. And that's one of them.
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I always wondered about the falsetto because it was always
you, but doing different kinds of on Sunshine.
It was what you called the Donovan voice.
More the lower. Yeah, even on Sugar Sugar, I was
doing my Donovan voice because Ikind of, I like the hush sound
of Mellow Yellow. They call.
Me Mellow yellow, right? So I said, well, sugar, honey,
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honey. I use that.
Of course, my New York accent came through on sugar, but yeah,
it worked. Sugar, honey, honey, you are my
candy. Girl and you got me.
People said maybe he's English, maybe he's not English, maybe
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he's Mid-Atlantic. They never, you know, you
couldn't pigeonhole me. It worked.
And of course, Bobby Bloom wrotea great song in Sunshine.
Bobby Bloom and Jeff Barry, great song.
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Bobby was gone too soon because he was a wonderful songwriter,
great singer. Montego Bay was just that track
on Montego Bay, but Bobby Bloom is just Jeff Barry and Bobby
Bloom playing all the instruments.
There are no other musicians in it.
(27:18):
Great times to have people thereeven you know people would come
in and and visit. It was great.
You were the second golden age. They had the first there and
then it became you guys. And that happened kind of after
the monkeys because of all of the problems.
They say that Don Kirchner wanted a group that wasn't real,
so that instead of having a group that would get out of
(27:39):
control like that. And it's kind of a shame that
that happened because the incredible music that they did
before and after the falling out, those first 4-5 albums are
outstanding. But I think even having read
David Cassidy's autobiography, it gets you to such a career
high that you can't see reality anymore.
You can't necessarily see. And David also felt like it was
(28:03):
just going on forever. The crowds are always going to
turn out and then the show goes off and kaboom.
They had their window and it waswonderful.
The Monkeys were bigger than TheBeatles during their heyday.
It was an unbelievable success based on the TV show, which was
cool, and based on the great songs that they recorded at
Boyce and Hart. Last Train to Clarksville.
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First time I heard that, I said wow, this is a major hit song
and record. Look at the way it sounds.
It's just a hit song. They had it.
I'm a believer. It's unbelievably beautiful hit
song. So it's amazing time and Cassidy
also also had his major window where he was so, so pot world
popular and deservedly so. I mean, he was very talented,
(28:46):
great singer, very talented teenidol.
And he didn't he wasn't really that teen.
He was more of a grown up in hismind and he wanted to be more,
I'm sure. But God gave him that that
opportunity to be the world's success and work all his life.
All his life he could work. And same thing with Mickey
Dolan's. Now he's carrying on the monkey
(29:07):
legacy into the 2000s. Well, everybody's coming out to
see him. Well, talk about a multi
talented performer. Mickey you just seeing on the
television show. He had a fantastic voice, he had
superb comic timing. You know, he was really the
comedy linchpin for those guys. I think he was more talented
than he ever got credit for. I think so.
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I mean, he was a pro. He and Davy were the pros in the
group. They had worked as children and
been successful, grown up and become teenagers and in their
20s and become more successful. Most teen kids who have teen
careers don't press into adulthood and have a big career.
It's a testament to Mickey and Davey's talent.
(29:48):
They were both incredibly talented in my mind.
Yeah, and Mickey also did quite a bit of Hanna Barbera stuff for
a while, as well as a voice actor.
Speaking of The Beatles and the Monkeys, did you run into any of
them during your travels? Well, the Monkeys, I ran it to
Davey all the time because I hadworked with him before he became
a Monkey. He had a solo album which I
(30:08):
worked on and I wrote songs for him and I produced with him.
So he and I became friends during those early years before
the Monkeys. Then over the years I've kept in
touch with him. I performed with him on stage in
Las Vegas. Mickey, I meet at the autograph
signing shows. I remember years back he said,
Ronnie, I'm going to take you out to my car.
I want to play you something. So I go out to his car with
(30:29):
Mickey Dolan and he plays me hisversion of Sugar.
Sugar, which is a brand new version.
Oh honey, oh sugar, sugar, you are my candy girl and you got me
wanting you. I said it took you 35 years but
(30:54):
you finally recorded. That was his contribution.
So I see him occasionally at rock'n'roll shows and things.
I'm very happy he's still out there.
It's great. That's great.
So The Beatles. I met Mick of The Rolling
Stones, but I didn't meet Paul or George of The Beatles.
Never met any of them. But Mick came to the studio once
when I was recording and wanted to just sit in and say hello.
So I got to hang with Mick Jagger.
(31:15):
And I remember thinking, on stage he's one person, but off
stage he's a businessman. Yeah, he was in a suit tie.
He was going to a business meeting with his accountants.
You know, he was the business side of The Rolling Stones.
That's why they're still so successful.
And the Billion Dollar Group. It's amazing.
That says a lot about why, because there was that side to
him, there was that practical side.
(31:36):
It wasn't just going crazy on stage.
That's really interesting. Did he come to an Archie's
session? No, he came.
I was producing at the time, other people I was working with,
the girl from fame, Irene Cara. Oh yeah.
And he wanted to meet Irene. I think he may have had a little
crush on her. So she was great.
He said, can I come in and visit?
I said, by all means, Mick Jagger, come on.
(31:58):
He sat in and watched us do a vocal with her.
I loved Irene Cara when she was on the electric company.
Right, Remember that she was another child star that made it
into adulthood. She was successful as a kid, she
went through her teen years and she was a monstrous hit with
fame and did a wonderful career.Yeah, what an era that was.
OK, so the archies are launched.Did you get selected right away
(32:21):
or were there auditions for singing in that?
You know, I think somebody else may have auditioned, but they
were charged too much. They wanted too big a royalty.
A friend of mine auditioned. Joey Levine.
Oh, yeah. Famous songwriter, a Jingle
producer. He had yummy, yummy, yummy.
He wrote and sang. Chewy, chewy, chewy.
He was a group called Reunion. They weren't quite up on his
(32:42):
voice. I heard they didn't have a
singer, lead singer. So a friend of mine in the band
called me and said they're in the studio today, called down
Kirschner. And so I called Donnie and I
went over and they had me sing Bang Shang Lang.
I remember going, I can do this.I recall just walking down the
street trying to escape the city.
(33:02):
I saw her from the corner of my eye.
Yeah, she looked so good. I thought I'd die.
My heart. Went it's just, I said this is a
natural. Jeff Berry knew how to write
hits, there's no doubt about it.And both Jeff Berry and
(33:23):
Kirschner said you got the job and the negotiation was a piece
of cake. I knew it would be successful.
I wanted to be a part of it, so I jumped on board.
Did you do more songs than endedup on the albums?
How did that work? Every song we recorded as a song
song for the albums was released, but all the dances of
the week were not released untilthe last year when I put out ACD
(33:44):
called Funhouse. Yes, Funhouse.
I put in about 10 of the dance of the Week.
So there's the unreleased thing.It was funny.
There were no fillers even when we got to the This Is Love album
with Ricky Adams writing a bunchof the songs with me and I was
producing with him. They're all quality songs.
Yeah, we took time with those tracks and made sure the vocals
(34:07):
were pristine. You know, I worked hard on them,
made sure they were good. We didn't release anything that
was not up to the quality of thegroup.
We wanted that group to have at least an audio thing that was
perfect. We were so happy to be in the
studio making these wonderful records, knowing that people
would hear them. It's one thing to make the
record and hope that somebody hears them, but when you're
(34:28):
making records and you know people are going to hear, the
millions of people are going to hear them, it's just a great
feeling. Tony Wine and I had so much fun.
They brought in some other singers down the road.
A couple of the girl singers came in after Tony left and went
on her solo career. It was a marvelous time and
this, all the stuff is availablenow.
It's all out there. If you go to YouTube, there's
(34:49):
100 episodes of 200 episodes of the Archie's that you can watch
and listen to the songs. Some of the songs on Archie's
Funhouse that did not get released sweet Saturday Night,
which you put on the Funhouse disc.
I guess we'll never hear them infull stereo or to their
completion. Did you ever hear of them being
in existence anywhere that the Kirchner people?
(35:10):
No, they brought in a new songwriter for the later years
of the Archies. Forget his name, but he took
over the reins and wrote these quickies.
And I called them quickies. They're really cool, but they're
quickies. Oh, they were written.
That way. Yeah, they're like boom boom.
Let's just write them quick. I came in and one afternoon I'll
do 3 or 4 songs. I'll do the leads and the
backgrounds on Puppet on the Street, Love Vibrations.
(35:33):
All those things were written byNeil Goldberg, and Neil wrote
all that stuff, produced all that stuff.
I was producing other people at the time, so I was getting busy
as a record producer and still doing jingles.
That's why there's a difference in all those takes.
If you listen to those tracks, the instrumentals, they're good,
but they're too quick. They're very simple.
(35:55):
Very. Very simple, not not as
imaginative as the first couple of albums and the first couple
of seasons. Nothing against Neil, he was
roped in and he had to do it quickly, so he did his very
best. He was a good guy and I liked
working with him, but I rememberthat the fire had gone out in
the tracks. I missed that.
So when they faded, that was theend of the song.
(36:17):
There was nothing else to that song.
I never knew that. I'm astonished.
They were done as quickies. There was supposed to be a
minute or whatever. That may have had something to
do also with the changing landscape of television, because
on the original Archie show and on the Comedy Hour, they could
play a song all the way through.You had the dance and then you
(36:38):
had the entire song, and then they would cut in the dance
during parts of the song. And then then there'll be the
groovy graphics. You know, some of the fun house
segments. They had songs from Sunshine.
Those were complete, but these songs were shorter and that was
probably to save time and the hours, say commercial time or
whatever testing was done. Who knows?
(36:58):
Some of them were full songs though.
Not all of them, but some of them definitely were full
creations. But it's a long time ago.
Yeah, but I do want to mention again that on your album, you've
got a lot of Archie's hits, you've got a bunch of these
quickie songs, you've got the dances, a lot of songs we didn't
know that you'd done. It's hard to explain what a
(37:21):
phenomenon the Archies were in 69, it says on the back cover of
Jingle Jangle. This is the year of the Mets,
the moon landing and the Archies.
It was an amazing, amazing year.Man on the Moon and and the
Archies, Yeah. And we changed things.
We changed things. People really caught on and
other things came up that The Osmonds had their own animation
(37:42):
show, the Jackson Five had theirown band, the The Partridge
Family had their own animation. And it lasts.
It's all out there now for us. Let's tell the story of how the
Chan clan came about and when were you approached and what
were you working on at the time.I was approached to do the all
the music for this TV show that Don Kirchner was the music
(38:03):
supervisor before. Every time I get a phone call
from Don Kirchner, I would lightup because I knew it was
something special. Something good is going to come
out of this. Always involved in wonderful
projects. His rock concert show was a big
hit in the late 70s. He's always attached themselves
to great projects and he was. He had a really good ear for
(38:25):
songs. It was called the Chan Clan, the
Amazing Chan and the Chain Clan.How big is the band?
He said it's all his kids are inthe band.
It's just like the Archies. Write some songs, write a theme
song. He put me together with Howie
Greenfield, Howard Greenfield, who had of course written all
the Neil Sedaka hits and of course the Grammy award-winning
song of the year. Love will keep us together.
(38:46):
So The Chant Clan was another miracle of a show for us because
Howie and I took like 2 weeks towrite all those songs.
Howie Greenfield Night and I knew they had something, just
had something, you know? Then I took them in the studio
and I recorded them and I playedthem for the Bigwigs in a live
meeting and they've just loved them.
So I went in the studio, I recorded it, and then I started
(39:06):
to see the visuals of the Chant Clan and I said, wow, they were
beautiful kids. I just love it.
And they're cute stories. They're like whodunits.
So we wrote songs like I got thegoods on you.
This is. Such a mystery to me.
You play the game of kiss and run away pretending I was just
(39:29):
another guy. But honey, kisses don't lie.
Oh baby, quit starving this girl, I know you.
(39:55):
You know, singing on those is Barry Manilow and Melissa
Manchester. I brought them in.
I was working with Barry at the time.
He had not had a hit yet. He's what he's still working
with Bette Middle at the time. But I said Barry come in and
bring Melissa. I knew Melissa from some Jingle
days. So I got both of them to sing on
those songs. They're doing backgrounds with
me. A lot of fun to do The Chain
(40:16):
Clan and I knew it would be successful.
It was a kind of a different spin on things that never been
an Asian America cartoon show, especially with this legendary
character Charlie Chan. I was very surprised they did
not put an album out. Yeah, I always questioned
Donnie. I said Donnie, couldn't you?
We had 12 songs. You had the visuals, put out an
(40:38):
audio album like the Archies, and for some reason he didn't
get it done. And he had his own record label.
I don't know what the licensing gone into it was.
Something happened and we missedthat golden ring, because that
would have been a very successful album.
Those songs were very pop. They were very much like the
Archies, and they had the great theme of Charlie Chan and his
(41:00):
kids. So I was very happy to do it.
I loved Who'd. Done it.
Who'd done it? Who came and stole my heart
away? Who'd done it?
Who'd done it? Who made me feel this way?
Everyone had a hook. Everyone of those songs had a
hook and I just loved producing and singing them.
(41:21):
That's why I put a few on on theI wish I could find the original
tapes. I've called Kirchner's wife.
I nobody can find even down Kirchner's son.
Nobody has the original 24 masters.
I don't know where they went to or the original.
Just the master tapes that I did.
Some of them live, at least fouror five of them around.
Of those 12 that we, Howie and Iwrote.
(41:44):
It was a great time. Did you watch it?
Oh yeah and I have the DVD as well on and watched it all the
time. It was a breakthrough show
because Hannah Barbaric had a huge casting for that and cast
as many Asian actors as they could to play the principal
roles. Jodie Foster was one of the
children, but most of the familywas, and Key Luke was the voice
(42:07):
of Charlie Chan. So great was that I knew it
could be a big success just likethe Archies.
I just, oh, we just, Kirchner missed the boat on that one.
Unfortunately, he didn't make. I'm sure he would have done it
if he could have put it out as agreat album.
But he probably ran into logistics legal problems with
the owners of the Chan legacy, you know, whoever owned it and
(42:30):
something went on. The one they use is just an
instrumental. It.
(42:51):
Was a cute theme song, but it really doesn't tell the story of
the Chan clan. Mine did.
Mine was pop. It had words to it.
How would we feel? It was incredible.
That's interesting because Bill Hannah tended to favor themes
that told the story of the show and gave you all the characters.
That's why I Meet the Flintstones became the theme in
the third season because you have to explain all that to
(43:12):
everybody. So I would recommend to
everybody seek out this album. Ron Dante's Funhouse, Dan Parent
from Archie Comics did the greatcover of you like you're at Pops
and you knew Barry Manilow already.
Was this your first thing that you did together?
Were that thing that you'd hiredhim for or how did that begin?
I had met him on a commercial before the Chan clan recordings.
(43:34):
He had written a spot for Pepsi.It was a new product.
I was hired along with Valerie Simpson of Ashford and Simpson
and Melissa Manchester, and we were the group and Barry
Manilow, Ron Dante, Melissa and Valerie.
And I remember walking in the studio and listening to his
track and I said, this is a great track, great stuff.
This is like a pop song. He said, yeah, I know you.
He said, I know what you've done.
(43:55):
I the Archie's and the Cufflinksand all your other groups.
He said, I would like to be a soloist.
Would you listen to some of my songs?
And so next day I went to meet him and I listened to his songs
and he played me. Could it be Magic Wow.
Along with I Am Your Child and Sweet Life and a Sweetwater
Jones 4 songs. He played me and said we're
going to studio next week and sure enough we went in.
(44:16):
In a following week. We did some demos.
We put a thing together, a showcase for the record
companies and invited them down to see us, and Barry put the
band together. I sang in the band, and we got a
record contract out of that showcase with a label called
Bell Records. Yeah, which was the Partridge
Family in Tony Orlando. We did an album, and the album
(44:37):
did OK, but they finally sold a label to a big company that set
up Clive Davis as president and he renamed it Ariston and that
was it. Then we did a new album for
Clive and that became the Mandy album, and then we did another 5
or 6 albums together over the course of the 70s and into the
80s. It was a lot of fun.
A lot of people don't know that most of the backgrounds on all
(45:00):
of Barry Manilow's hits are justthe archies just doubling my
voice and singing all the highs and lows with Barry.
Barry and I did all the backgrounds.
We used to call ourselves the Barons because it's Barry and
Ron Dante. It was a great moment because we
knew a lot of people were going to hear what we did after Mandy.
But it was it was a trek. It was from 1973.
(45:22):
We met 7273, we signed our record deal.
We had a couple of things and then by January of 75, Mandy
hit. So it took some time.
You'd been producing things already for the archies and
stuff, but you're producing albums and then you got into
Broadway producing. Oh, yeah.
Later on in the 70s, I had the opportunity to become a Broadway
(45:42):
producer with friends of mine. My friend James Lipton and
Emanuel Azenberg were producing a show and they said, would you
like to be part of this show called Ain't Misbehavin, which
is the Fats Waller legacy of songs.
I went to listen to it. I heard it.
I said I'm in. This is going to be my second
Broadway show. The first one didn't do very
well, but I know this one's a success.
(46:03):
It's a music. It's really jumping cats and
check your hands by me the. Joy is jumping.
And sure enough, it ran for fouryears, and it was, I won a Tony
(46:23):
for it. Gene Kelly gave me my Tony.
Wow. It was like for a guy who's, you
know, a background studio singerwho became a producer, it was
like, what a high point. What a wonderful thing.
It's amazing. What's old is new again.
Sometimes the retro works. The Internet is open to
everybody up to everything. And it's funny, with the TV show
(46:44):
Riverdale that was on for four or five years, it sparked an
interest in the Archie's again. They actually use Jingle Jangle
on one of the shows on Riverdale.
They use Sugar, sugar there. So was a kind of a tip of the
hat to what had been. It didn't hurt.
And then there was just an Archie's movie that came from
India. Yeah, it was a Bollywood movie
on Netflix with all the characters but Indian teenagers.
(47:08):
It was a musical and I got a lotof publicity and I got a lot of
calls from India, a lot of emails from India saying what
are you doing? You're going to come visit
Mumbai to perform. I mean, it's, it's amazing what
happens. Sometimes when something's
remade or rebooted or done in a different way or all, it's like,
but don't win anywhere or as Captain Kirk would say, no blah
(47:28):
blah blah. Because if this is being
revived, there are a lot of people who will look a step
further. Even young people.
They say, where'd this come from?
What else is there? What else is Archie?
Because when I got into the Archies and the comics, it was
when the show was on and I just became a big fan of Archie in
general. And I love reading the stuff
from the 40s and the 50s too, and the radio show as well.
(47:50):
So if you enjoy an entity, you're going to look further.
And that's good for all the legacy stuff.
It's a good thing when the public is reminded.
Well, look at the success of Barbie.
I mean, it's a worldwide smash. They're doing the sequel
already, I'm sure. And who would have guessed that?
When I heard it was being made, I said, wonder what they going
(48:11):
to do with that? And sure enough, everybody
bought it. It's always good.
You know, look at the Chipmunks.Once animation on the big screen
was able to duplicate the Chipmunks, it became a brand new
franchise. It has been dormant for years
and years, so you never can tell.
You know, the technology helps everybody.
I have a friend who believed in Batman, and he got the very
(48:32):
first Michael Keaton Batman movie made and everybody said,
well, nobody wants it. The Batman's a, you know, a pop
TV show. He said no, no, it can be a
serious movie. And look at that franchise
today, and it's been 30 years orsomething, and it's one of the
most popular franchises ever, and it continues.
We have a mutual friend in BambiMOA because you produced music
(48:54):
for Disney Animation. Bambi let me produce some music
for The Little Mermaid TV show. Produced 4 songs.
The music with a smile never give up.
I in a little while with the on my shell.
(49:16):
When opportunity rings my bell, I'm giving up the thought of
ever giving up. I'm never giving up on.
You they came out just wonderfully.
It was great to work with her shoes.
She was a visionary. She knew what she was doing and
she did a great job. And as a Disney fan, that's how
you know from Enchanted, which was a great Alan Manken score.
(49:38):
That was on a Disney compilationthat they put out.
They called me and they wanted me to be part of it.
I said, wow, all these kids, allthese teens, and here I am.
See, that's how you know he loves you.
(49:58):
When the sky is grey, you find anew way to show you a little bit
every day. That's how you know that's how.
You know he's your love. See, you never can tell.
You never can tell. You were part of an era where a
(50:18):
lot of things changed and there was a lot of things that had
never been done before. Yeah, and true.
And at the time, you know, you just do it and you keep moving
from thing to thing. But it must be some
extraordinary thing to look backon.
It's wonderful and I love the reminisce.
I'm always very present, though.Some people say, are you living
in the past? I say no, no, the past is living
in me. Yeah, it's living in me and it's
(50:41):
just part of who I am. And I can refer to it when I
need to, but I always look forward also because I am a
musician, I am a singer and I can create stuff.
I can put it on a keyboard or a guitar, and before you know it,
it's real. I'm very fortunate to be able to
do that. You know, there's just, there's
too much to talk about and but Idefinitely want to get in what
(51:02):
you're doing now because you arebusier than ever.
If you follow Ron on his websiteor on his Facebook page, he's
everywhere. I am getting around the last six
years I've been on the Happy Together tour that boasts 6 acts
all singing their hits so I hopeto see everybody out there will
be in all the cities around America.
Just check ourhappytogether.tour.com.
(51:23):
Oh, that's classic, and it's still great.
It's still fantastic. There's so, so much here and
you've given so much, not only with your own talent, but the
talent that you've influenced and touched millions of people's
lives and are not and are so calm and modest about it.
It's. It's a big gift.
(51:43):
You know, I took all the opportunities that were put in
front of me and I prepared. I was ready as a vocalist, I was
ready as a singer, I was ready as a producer.
Just give me the opportunity waswhat I used to feel.
And eventually the phone rings or you call somebody or meet
somebody on the street and it comes about.
It's been a wonderful ride and I'll continue it as long as it
(52:03):
wants to go. You know, as long as the
creative juices flow, I will be doing this.
All I can do is quote ABBA and say thank you for the music and
thank you for the friendship andthank you so much for being with
us on the podcast and sharing somuch of this.
Greg, thanks for having me. Also, thanks to all of you
listening. Subscribe if you'd like, write a
(52:25):
nice review if you'd like, and we'll be with you next time.
Bye bye. We hope you enjoyed the
fantastic world of Hannah and Barbera with Greg Airborne.
Please join us again and Many thanks for listening.
Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, we love Hanna
Barbera. Welcome to the fantastic world
of Hanna and Barbera. A celebration of Bill Hanna, Joe
(00:31):
Barbera and the thousands of people, past and present, who
have shared in their entertainment tradition.
And now your host, Greg Airbar. Hi, this is Greg Airbar.
Welcome to the fantastic world. I want to take a few minutes
just to thank you again for a wonderful first year.
We've been on over a year. We hope you've enjoyed it and I
(00:54):
really want to thank you for allyour kindness, your
subscriptions and likes online. Nice comments.
Please keep them coming because that helps the show keep on
rolling. And we're going to roll a show
that has become a favorite. This is the one we did with Ron
Dante where he talked about the amazing Chan and the Chan clan,
(01:14):
his incredible career on records, on television, all
kinds of things. So here he is again, the
extraordinarily nice as well as extremely talented Ron Dante.
Hi, Greg, good to be. Here, it's really great to have
you, and you're here because youwere the voice and music behind
(01:35):
the musical interludes, the romps on the amazing Chan and
the Chan clan. And we will talk all about how
that happened. But first of all, there's so
much else. Ron was the voice of the
archies, the detergents, the cufflinks.
He was I'd like to teach the world to sing, and hundreds of
commercials produce Barry Manilow albums, produce Broadway
(01:59):
shows. That's just the tip of the
iceberg. So first, I'd like to go back,
as I like to say, go back how you started, how you got
interested in music as a kid. Carmine Granito is your real
name, if you don't mind me revealing that.
I'm very proud of MyHeritage. I grew up in a an Italian
American family in Staten Island, NY, and every event
(02:21):
there were people singing. Uncles were singing, my dad was
singing. Nobody did it professionally,
but I kind of liked singing. And the original reason I
started to play an instrument was I was playing Tarzan.
I fell out of a tree at 12 yearsold, busted my arm up, and the
doctor said it's going to be stiff all your life if you don't
play ball or you don't take up an instrument.
(02:42):
So at the time I was a huge fan of Elvis and The Everly
Brothers. And I said, I think I'll take up
guitar, I'll try that. My dad got me a little guitar.
We put it through a webcore taperecorder, was my amplifier, and
I started to play guitar, took lessons, started to write some
songs. About a year later, I put
together a a Group, A teenage group called the Persuaders and
(03:05):
we played all over the tri-statearea at Cy Oak Centers and
weddings and all kinds of thingsand doing all rock'n'roll.
And that's the way I kind of started.
It led me to a manager. My dad got me a manager who
happened to be up in the Brill Building area of New York City.
So I had my manager up there andI would go visit him.
(03:26):
He's trying to get me some record deals.
He's trying to get me something.He was doing nothing for me.
His secretary said to me, she said, you know, there's a
publishing company right upstairs from us in this
building called Alden Music. And it's run by a guy named Don
Kirchner. And it's the hottest music
publishing company in the world right now.
Why don't you go up there and ask the secretary to audition?
(03:48):
And I did, and they gave me an audition.
They gave me a little record, and they said, learn this song,
come back in a week. So I learned the song is one of
their songs. And I auditioned for their
songwriters who were on staff there, and they liked me.
And they said you could be our staff demo maker.
So they introduced me to Mr. DonKirschner.
And at 17 years old, I got a publishing contract and I was
(04:09):
the staff demo maker. Wow.
Yeah. First time I walked in the
office, there was Neil Sedaka, Carole King and Tony Orlando in
cubicles writing songs and singing.
Yes, so that. Was the beginning.
That was an extraordinary place.Was that on 1650?
Also Broadway, they say. The Brill Building.
Was it literally the Brill Building?
(04:30):
No, the Brill Building was across the street, directly
across the street, which I worked in.
A couple of years later I workedin the Brill Building for Bobby
Darin's publishing company. I was a staff songwriter.
But 1650 was a very hot building, had record companies,
managers, had a recording studioin the cellar.
So you can go down at night and record your stuff.
It was a very, very hot place. It's funny, I signed there and
(04:52):
about within a year, Don Kirchner sold his publishing
company to Screen Gems Columbia.And we all moved to 5th Ave. 711
5th Ave. the Columbia Pictures building, and we had our own
cubicles there. And that's when we really got
involved in movies, TV shows. Even back then, you and the
staff were running on a paralleltrack with Hanna Barbera because
(05:17):
when Screen Gems music was running at full speed, that's
where Jonny Angel and she can't find her keys came from for the
Donna Reed Show. That's where the, I guess Ozzie
Nelson invented the idea with Ricky of promoting music through
television, and it was really successful.
But sitcom after sitcom was introducing pop songs and they
(05:37):
were shooting to #1 which culminated with probably the
Monkeys and the Partridge Familyand the Archies using TV.
But Hanna Barbera did too, because making with the Magilla
was arranged by Carole King and it was sung by Little Eva and it
was on the Magilla Gorilla Show.So wow, it's.
Very cool, very cool. I always thought that Eva copied
(06:14):
Carole voice to the tee when shesang.
It sounded a lot like Carol. That's true.
We really got around us. Songwriters had lots of
opportunities. Bewitched was coming around.
You had a chance to write the theme song for Bewitched.
Bewitched, bewitched. You've got me in your spell.
Bewitched, bewitched. You know your crap so well.
(06:41):
My friend Jack Keller got it with Howie Greenfield.
Howie Greenfield actually. And I did all the songs for the
Chant Clan. We did 11:50 songs for that
show. The influence of that area, the
Monkeys alone, and I'm also the Flying Nun.
The Flying Nun song came out of there.
Lester Sill and Howard Greenfield, Dominic Frontieri, A
(07:02):
lot of those people wrote incredible, incredible songs and
themes. It's funny, they threw a party
when the Flying Nun debuted and I went to the party with Don
Kirschner and a few writers, andI met Sally Field.
Ow. She was a dog.
She was so. Cute.
(07:33):
Everybody wanted to dates out the field.
I mean, it was just everybody's trying to buy her a drink, but
she was too young. You know, we were all teenagers.
We were all very young when thatwhen those things happened.
She was 20. Yeah, She was just 20 when she
did that show and they'd released a whole album.
I mean, I'm getting way off topic here, but I Flying Nun's a
personal favorite of mine because I got that album when it
came out. That was the essence of what
(07:54):
these songwriters and talents could produce because every but
Ernie Freeman, all of these legendary people worked on that
as well as the Monkeys. And then we get to the Archies.
But did you work 9:00 to 5:00, go into the studio work?
What was a typical day there foryou?
We'd get in a little later, try to miss the traffic.
All the songwriters. Songwriters will night people.
(08:17):
We don't work 9:00 to 5:00. You know, we come in about 11
and stay in the office and write.
And if we get onto a good tune or something, we'll just stay in
the office, you know, until 9:00or 10:00 at night, writing in
our cubicle because there was the place.
And we also knew that the next day we could play it for
somebody and say, Gee, can we doa demo on this song?
It's 4X. And usually they'd say, yes, we
(08:40):
always had a budget, you know, for three or four musicians.
Go to a demo studio and record your songs.
It was a pretty exciting time. I remember walking down the
hallway and I heard somebody writing a song called 98.6.
OK, 98.6. And they were writing it, hey,
98.8. And I put my head in and I said,
(09:00):
you know, you have the wrong temperature, but it sounds like
a hit song. You never can tell it was going
to come out of that. I have you to thank that and
Keith that right. They've gotten a piece of the
royalty. Did they give you like a what we
used to call a job requisition and say, OK, here's the song,
here's the idea, here's what it's for, go to it and then you
(09:21):
did something decor a couple of things or what?
Oh yeah, down, Kirschner would say, to a bunch of us each week.
X is coming in, Mickey, most from England, is coming in.
He's producing the Animals, producing Herman's Hermits.
Write some songs for him we'll play them live for him if he
likes them we'll demo them and get them to him.
So Carole King and you know Barry man Cynthia Wildwood write
(09:44):
we got to get out of this place.Carole King would write I'm into
something good so you never could tell what the
opportunities would have were great.
He'd also say there's ATV show coming up.
One of the things that we did what he said we're doing this
show based on The Beatles movie of Hard Day's night and it's
going to be called the monkeys. First of all, Ron want you to
(10:05):
audition for it, which I did. I did a great video on it.
They sent it out to California. Unfortunately, Davy Jones got
that slot, you know, but it was fun to be even there.
He said, write some songs. I actually wrote songs for Davy
and we recorded him in New York City.
So those were fun times. We always had projects to work
for. And then sometimes we just make
them up ourselves. We just come up with a great
(10:26):
song and we'd say to the, you know, Kirshner or the guy who
ran the the money, we say, can we go demo this song?
And 9 out of 10 times they'd listen and say, sure, go demo
that song. They were very open.
So you were in good company though as far as the monkeys,
because I think Steven Stills was turned down as well for
that. Everybody in New York City
audition. Every younger singer, male
(10:47):
singer audition for the Monkeys.There were tons of videos being
done and unfortunately we didn'thave much of a chance because it
was all being done in Los Angeles.
Those producers and the guys whowere really the the important
people behind it, they wanted people who lived locally.
Except for Davy Jones, everybodyelse was from California.
Did that put a lot of pressure on when that show was needing?
(11:09):
Because that became so much of Aphenomenon and it was needing
the songs and probably with everything else, were things
really starting to churn and wasthat sort of the peak or what?
It was a churn. You would churn them out.
Once the Monkeys debuted, every team of songwriters at Screen
Jams Columbia, under Kirchner's auspices, would start to write
for the Monkeys. That what an opportunity.
(11:31):
Just get one on their album. The first album sold.
I want 3 million copies. Having just a one song on that
album could pay for your house for a year.
So we all tried it. We all did it.
The golden teams, as I called them, Man and Wild Greenfield
and Sedaka and Carole King and and Jerry Goffin, they were the
golden teams there. I mean, they were writing hits
(11:52):
every week. Every few months there'd be
another huge song from them thatwas on the charts, that was
charting. We were the younger teens
opposite them. So we had to learn, you know,
how to learn to get up and writethose hits.
Were the golden teams generous about giving you guidance as you
were learning? No, never.
No, really. Never.
(12:15):
Carole King would even talk to me and Barry Mann hated my
voice. I mean, they didn't like the
teens. I was 1718 and they were in
their 20s. They were married already and
they were also big time songwriters making a fortune.
I mean, Don Kirschner got each one of those teams, $1,000,000
guarantee from BMI, one year foreach of them.
(12:37):
Each team, they got a guarantee that their songs would earn over
a million. So they gave them the million in
front. They were the unbelievable.
I mean, but they never helped the younger people.
No, they were not gracious aboutthat at all, you know.
So you nodded in the hall. That's the way it goes, yeah.
No, it's completely competitive.Carol wouldn't even acknowledge
your presence. It was.
Like, oh, not even a nod. That's the way it was.
(12:58):
So do you remember some of the early songs that you were
getting onto vinyl, as they say,onto wax?
I got recorded by Gary Lewis andthe Playboys.
James Darren did one of my songs.
Bobby V recorded my songs JohnnyMathis, Jay and the Americans.
No big hits, but I was on B sides of some of the hits of
Freddie Cannon and I wrote a song for the B side of where the
(13:21):
action is. Yeah, AB side got the same as an
A side, right? So yeah, you got paid no matter
what. So Melody Hill did as well as
sugar. Sugar, right?
It made as much money as Sugar Sugar, wow, if Sugar Sugar
knocked down a half, $1,000,000 for the riders.
(13:49):
Melody Hill, Mark Barkin and Richie Adams got the.
Oh, so that would explain why Justine and Truck Driver were on
so many greatest hits compilations too.
Because they technically were, you know, million sellers too.
Absolutely, yeah. You're just moving up the ladder
doing that, but also at the sametime starting to do commercials
(14:10):
and things like that, right? Yes, being in New York City and
at that time there was a huge commercial business.
Jingles were huge and they needed singers who sounded like
the radio, not like the old timeJingle singers who were very
homogenized, you know, very fourpart harmonies and stuff.
They wanted people who sounded like the radio.
So younger Jingle singers, as I was part of them, got the
(14:33):
opportunity to show up, learn the Jingle and add our sound to
the new sound. So Pepsi, Coke, Doctor Pepper,
you name it, all went very current on their commercials.
And that's what my career exploded, especially after Sugar
Sugar happened. Everybody wanted the voice of
the archies on their commercials, so I was happy to
(14:54):
do it. Your voice is very distinctive,
especially the I like to teach the world to sing.
You can hear Coca. Cola.
(15:24):
I did a hundred of those. It was a very good time and they
were very generous to let me do leads sometimes, sometimes just
part of the background group, but always on them.
Yeah. It's an interesting situation
business wise in advertising with jingles because they don't
use them. It's kind of like theme songs.
They don't use them as often as they do and yet they're still
out there and it's still a greatway to sell a product.
(15:46):
So it's not really an outdated way to do advertising.
You know it. It's really changed.
The intent is now to make normalpeople sing them.
You get a lot of that. They're not really good, but I
guess the population likes it orthe people who own the products
think it's working. It's communicating with the
population. But I really miss really good
(16:07):
singers singing really good commercials.
I miss that a lot. And I think that business has
gone down so much that you just don't hear any great spots
anymore. I mean, I'm loving it.
That's not a spot, that's a phrase.
But it's not McDonald's. It's not Coke or Pepsi with some
of those the Pepsi campaigns that I did and in the early 70s
(16:29):
you've got a lot to live campaigns.
It's in the Smithsonian under their audio files as legendary
commercials really. And yes, it'll be there forever.
How Linden did the voice over onmy.
Spots small town USA filled withpeople who get a big kick out of
the little things in life like porch swings, kids and Pepsi
(16:50):
Cola. Pepsi gives them the taste and
energy. They come to a cola for Pepsi
generation. Come in at you going strong.
Put yourself behind the Pepsi. If you're living, you belong.
(17:14):
You've got a lot to live, and Pepsi's got a lot to get.
You know, it's online. You can actually go online and
access some of those videos and audios of the greatest
commercials ever. You just check some of those
out. They're really high quality,
(17:36):
high quality films. You know, those are the days
when they're doing incredible spots, videos, especially in
audio. I mean, look at the Budweiser
Clydesdale commercials. Even today you'll see one at the
Super Bowl maybe. And it stands out as one of the
finest product lines they've ever put out.
Those with the Dalmatian and, you know, riding along with the
Clydesdales and you'll hear my Budweiser commercial, Here comes
(17:59):
the king here. Comes the king, comes the big
#1. Many of us had no idea we
(18:19):
weren't just playing records to hear you.
We were hearing you throughout our our day on the radio and on
the television. You were ubiquitous.
You know, there was a radio station in New York City called
WABC, which was the one of the most powerful radio stations in
the country. At night you could hear it in
almost 16 states, and in one hour they would play both my
(18:39):
Archie's records, my cufflinks records, Tracy, and two or three
of my commercials. So my mom would call me.
She says you're all over the radio today.
And she was right. It was like a unique moment in
time. So did she make you a big pot of
sauce? Mom was always very proud, so is
Dad. They were very proud that their
boy voice was all over the place.
(19:01):
Well, they were so supportive. That's a blessing to have that.
Right from the beginning. Was leader of the laundromat the
first breakout sort of thing youdid with the detergents, or did
you have other singles we would remember you singing on before
that? No, that was the first hit and
it went top ten. And it's so sad that I'm Mary
(19:21):
Weiss of the Shangri LA's who weparried it.
Her leader of the pack passed away.
Oh, it was such, so sad. We toured with the Shangri LA's,
the detergent Shangri LA's on a Dick Clark caravan of stars and
they would do their hit leader of the pack and then their show.
And then we come out and do leader of the laundromat and
everybody would laugh and they, you know, we'd have a great time
backstage, too. It was an interesting hit
(19:56):
because it got me out touring, which I had never done, on a bus
with Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars on it was Freddie Cannon,
Little Anthony in The Imperials,Herman's Hermits.
We actually opened for The Rolling Stones in Philadelphia
one night. It was an amazing night.
We we went on just before The Rolling Stones and they were
throwing things at us because they wanted to see Mick, you
(20:18):
know, they had satisfaction. It was one of the biggest hits
in the world. You know, it was all good
stories. So what leader of laundromat?
What year was that? 65. 65 And then Tracy, what was
that like 67? Tracy was 69.
Tracy. When I'm with you, something you
do bounces me off the ceiling, Tracy.
(20:40):
Day after day. When you're this way, I get a
love and feeling. What did you have like 2-3 hits
on radio and you couldn't tell anybody because.
It was supposed to be anonymous.I was a studio singer.
I did maybe 20 groups during those years under different
names. They would usually my demos I
(21:02):
did for these songwriters, they'd get them put out as
different groups. I had about 20 groups out at the
time, so the cufflinks and the Archie's, it was part of my
anonymity. I was singing jingles at the
time. So that was my real business and
they wanted me to maybe tour at the Archies.
But the comic book people wantedit to stay animated.
They don't want a live group outthere.
And as you've seen, there's never been a live group.
(21:24):
No, there has never been a live Archie's group.
Ever You were singing for various demos and you were
singing for various things that became groups that they just
named, like Dawn. You know, Tony Orlando was
singing Candida and they just made-up the name Dawn.
And the song became such a hit. They had to find Joyce, Vincent
Wilson and tell me Hopkins to beDawn on the second album.
(21:47):
In your case, you did that tons of times, and all of a sudden
Don Kirchner wanted the archies.Now, those of us who know the
history of the monkeys and the archies, it was getting to be a
rocky road with the monkeys. Terrible Rd.
Yeah, they completely rebelled. They were so famous, right?
So famous that they just went crazy.
(22:09):
And they said, well, we can do it all.
Why should we have Carole King and Neil Sedaka and Neil Diamond
write our stuff? We can do it all.
So they went off and they did their thing and you know, that
was it. But Kirchner was a good thing
for them. I always applauded Donnie's
musical ability to make stars and get make writer stars, make
(22:29):
singer stars. So one thing I wanted to say
about Don. You mentioned Don and Tony
Orlando, the girl who wrote Candida and sang as the group
with Tony Orlando was Tony Wine.She was the girl voice of the
Archies. Is fresh.
(22:55):
And. Clean, great singer song, right?
She wrote Candida, of course. And a groovy kind of love.
On sugar sugar, she was both by the infer.
I'm going to make your life so sweet.
She sang it low and yet she's saying hi.
She was great on that. On Jingle Jangle I sang most of
the lead in falsetto because they cut the track in the wrong
key. Is that why?
(23:15):
I said, guys, we just had a major hit with this sound on
Sugar Sugar. Why in the world would you want
me to sing the song in my falsetto and have Tony Wine do
the answers? Which that's the way we ping
pong the vocals. But that was Don Kirchner and
Jeff Berry, the writer, producers.
They came up with it and it was a hit, but it was completely
(23:38):
different than the sugar sugar salad.
I always said we got to get backto that sugar sugar sound.
Yeah. Because.
Because that's the one that soldthe whole package.
You know, Bang Shang Alang also was a big hit.
This it was. It was my sound, you know, so I
never quite understood the thinking behind that.
But I've got 2 gold records up there on the wall, 1 Sugar Sugar
(23:59):
and one is Jingle Jangle and I'mproud, I'm proud of both of
them. What's so cool about that record
(24:40):
is that it's pretty much just you and Tony and that La La la,
the blend, it's beautiful. It gives me the chills.
It's so good. And that's all pretty much you
and her. It's just the two of us.
We want to check ourselves four or five times to make it sound
like the whole group, but it's just Tony, Wine and myself.
And we always blended. You know, Tony was there in the
(25:02):
office when I signed with Don Kirchner, when I walked in and I
auditioned. She was part of the audition
process with a few of the other writers there.
But I remember we were the kids in the office.
She was 16, I was 17, and we stayed friends all those years.
And when the Archies came around, I was so happy to see
her in the studio with me doing all the backgrounds and all the
(25:23):
records. The first couple of albums it
was just. You can hear the joy in our
voices because we. That is pure joy.
Sometimes you you will experience a work no matter what
the artistic work is and you just know it worked.
And and I play that over and over again that there are
certain songs you just want to play over and over again because
they just make you feel great. And that's one of them.
(25:46):
I always wondered about the falsetto because it was always
you, but doing different kinds of on Sunshine.
It was what you called the Donovan voice.
More the lower. Yeah, even on Sugar Sugar, I was
doing my Donovan voice because Ikind of, I like the hush sound
of Mellow Yellow. They call.
Me Mellow yellow, right? So I said, well, sugar, honey,
(26:08):
honey. I use that.
Of course, my New York accent came through on sugar, but yeah,
it worked. Sugar, honey, honey, you are my
candy. Girl and you got me.
People said maybe he's English, maybe he's not English, maybe
(26:29):
he's Mid-Atlantic. They never, you know, you
couldn't pigeonhole me. It worked.
And of course, Bobby Bloom wrotea great song in Sunshine.
Bobby Bloom and Jeff Barry, great song.
(26:51):
Bobby was gone too soon because he was a wonderful songwriter,
great singer. Montego Bay was just that track
on Montego Bay, but Bobby Bloom is just Jeff Barry and Bobby
Bloom playing all the instruments.
There are no other musicians in it.
(27:18):
Great times to have people thereeven you know people would come
in and and visit. It was great.
You were the second golden age. They had the first there and
then it became you guys. And that happened kind of after
the monkeys because of all of the problems.
They say that Don Kirchner wanted a group that wasn't real,
so that instead of having a group that would get out of
(27:39):
control like that. And it's kind of a shame that
that happened because the incredible music that they did
before and after the falling out, those first 4-5 albums are
outstanding. But I think even having read
David Cassidy's autobiography, it gets you to such a career
high that you can't see reality anymore.
You can't necessarily see. And David also felt like it was
(28:03):
just going on forever. The crowds are always going to
turn out and then the show goes off and kaboom.
They had their window and it waswonderful.
The Monkeys were bigger than TheBeatles during their heyday.
It was an unbelievable success based on the TV show, which was
cool, and based on the great songs that they recorded at
Boyce and Hart. Last Train to Clarksville.
(28:25):
First time I heard that, I said wow, this is a major hit song
and record. Look at the way it sounds.
It's just a hit song. They had it.
I'm a believer. It's unbelievably beautiful hit
song. So it's amazing time and Cassidy
also also had his major window where he was so, so pot world
popular and deservedly so. I mean, he was very talented,
(28:46):
great singer, very talented teenidol.
And he didn't he wasn't really that teen.
He was more of a grown up in hismind and he wanted to be more,
I'm sure. But God gave him that that
opportunity to be the world's success and work all his life.
All his life he could work. And same thing with Mickey
Dolan's. Now he's carrying on the monkey
(29:07):
legacy into the 2000s. Well, everybody's coming out to
see him. Well, talk about a multi
talented performer. Mickey you just seeing on the
television show. He had a fantastic voice, he had
superb comic timing. You know, he was really the
comedy linchpin for those guys. I think he was more talented
than he ever got credit for. I think so.
(29:27):
I mean, he was a pro. He and Davy were the pros in the
group. They had worked as children and
been successful, grown up and become teenagers and in their
20s and become more successful. Most teen kids who have teen
careers don't press into adulthood and have a big career.
It's a testament to Mickey and Davey's talent.
(29:48):
They were both incredibly talented in my mind.
Yeah, and Mickey also did quite a bit of Hanna Barbera stuff for
a while, as well as a voice actor.
Speaking of The Beatles and the Monkeys, did you run into any of
them during your travels? Well, the Monkeys, I ran it to
Davey all the time because I hadworked with him before he became
a Monkey. He had a solo album which I
(30:08):
worked on and I wrote songs for him and I produced with him.
So he and I became friends during those early years before
the Monkeys. Then over the years I've kept in
touch with him. I performed with him on stage in
Las Vegas. Mickey, I meet at the autograph
signing shows. I remember years back he said,
Ronnie, I'm going to take you out to my car.
I want to play you something. So I go out to his car with
(30:29):
Mickey Dolan and he plays me hisversion of Sugar.
Sugar, which is a brand new version.
Oh honey, oh sugar, sugar, you are my candy girl and you got me
wanting you. I said it took you 35 years but
(30:54):
you finally recorded. That was his contribution.
So I see him occasionally at rock'n'roll shows and things.
I'm very happy he's still out there.
It's great. That's great.
So The Beatles. I met Mick of The Rolling
Stones, but I didn't meet Paul or George of The Beatles.
Never met any of them. But Mick came to the studio once
when I was recording and wanted to just sit in and say hello.
So I got to hang with Mick Jagger.
(31:15):
And I remember thinking, on stage he's one person, but off
stage he's a businessman. Yeah, he was in a suit tie.
He was going to a business meeting with his accountants.
You know, he was the business side of The Rolling Stones.
That's why they're still so successful.
And the Billion Dollar Group. It's amazing.
That says a lot about why, because there was that side to
him, there was that practical side.
(31:36):
It wasn't just going crazy on stage.
That's really interesting. Did he come to an Archie's
session? No, he came.
I was producing at the time, other people I was working with,
the girl from fame, Irene Cara. Oh yeah.
And he wanted to meet Irene. I think he may have had a little
crush on her. So she was great.
He said, can I come in and visit?
I said, by all means, Mick Jagger, come on.
(31:58):
He sat in and watched us do a vocal with her.
I loved Irene Cara when she was on the electric company.
Right, Remember that she was another child star that made it
into adulthood. She was successful as a kid, she
went through her teen years and she was a monstrous hit with
fame and did a wonderful career.Yeah, what an era that was.
OK, so the archies are launched.Did you get selected right away
(32:21):
or were there auditions for singing in that?
You know, I think somebody else may have auditioned, but they
were charged too much. They wanted too big a royalty.
A friend of mine auditioned. Joey Levine.
Oh, yeah. Famous songwriter, a Jingle
producer. He had yummy, yummy, yummy.
He wrote and sang. Chewy, chewy, chewy.
He was a group called Reunion. They weren't quite up on his
(32:42):
voice. I heard they didn't have a
singer, lead singer. So a friend of mine in the band
called me and said they're in the studio today, called down
Kirschner. And so I called Donnie and I
went over and they had me sing Bang Shang Lang.
I remember going, I can do this.I recall just walking down the
street trying to escape the city.
(33:02):
I saw her from the corner of my eye.
Yeah, she looked so good. I thought I'd die.
My heart. Went it's just, I said this is a
natural. Jeff Berry knew how to write
hits, there's no doubt about it.And both Jeff Berry and
(33:23):
Kirschner said you got the job and the negotiation was a piece
of cake. I knew it would be successful.
I wanted to be a part of it, so I jumped on board.
Did you do more songs than endedup on the albums?
How did that work? Every song we recorded as a song
song for the albums was released, but all the dances of
the week were not released untilthe last year when I put out ACD
(33:44):
called Funhouse. Yes, Funhouse.
I put in about 10 of the dance of the Week.
So there's the unreleased thing.It was funny.
There were no fillers even when we got to the This Is Love album
with Ricky Adams writing a bunchof the songs with me and I was
producing with him. They're all quality songs.
Yeah, we took time with those tracks and made sure the vocals
(34:07):
were pristine. You know, I worked hard on them,
made sure they were good. We didn't release anything that
was not up to the quality of thegroup.
We wanted that group to have at least an audio thing that was
perfect. We were so happy to be in the
studio making these wonderful records, knowing that people
would hear them. It's one thing to make the
record and hope that somebody hears them, but when you're
(34:28):
making records and you know people are going to hear, the
millions of people are going to hear them, it's just a great
feeling. Tony Wine and I had so much fun.
They brought in some other singers down the road.
A couple of the girl singers came in after Tony left and went
on her solo career. It was a marvelous time and
this, all the stuff is availablenow.
It's all out there. If you go to YouTube, there's
(34:49):
100 episodes of 200 episodes of the Archie's that you can watch
and listen to the songs. Some of the songs on Archie's
Funhouse that did not get released sweet Saturday Night,
which you put on the Funhouse disc.
I guess we'll never hear them infull stereo or to their
completion. Did you ever hear of them being
in existence anywhere that the Kirchner people?
(35:10):
No, they brought in a new songwriter for the later years
of the Archies. Forget his name, but he took
over the reins and wrote these quickies.
And I called them quickies. They're really cool, but they're
quickies. Oh, they were written.
That way. Yeah, they're like boom boom.
Let's just write them quick. I came in and one afternoon I'll
do 3 or 4 songs. I'll do the leads and the
backgrounds on Puppet on the Street, Love Vibrations.
(35:33):
All those things were written byNeil Goldberg, and Neil wrote
all that stuff, produced all that stuff.
I was producing other people at the time, so I was getting busy
as a record producer and still doing jingles.
That's why there's a difference in all those takes.
If you listen to those tracks, the instrumentals, they're good,
but they're too quick. They're very simple.
(35:55):
Very. Very simple, not not as
imaginative as the first couple of albums and the first couple
of seasons. Nothing against Neil, he was
roped in and he had to do it quickly, so he did his very
best. He was a good guy and I liked
working with him, but I rememberthat the fire had gone out in
the tracks. I missed that.
So when they faded, that was theend of the song.
(36:17):
There was nothing else to that song.
I never knew that. I'm astonished.
They were done as quickies. There was supposed to be a
minute or whatever. That may have had something to
do also with the changing landscape of television, because
on the original Archie show and on the Comedy Hour, they could
play a song all the way through.You had the dance and then you
(36:38):
had the entire song, and then they would cut in the dance
during parts of the song. And then then there'll be the
groovy graphics. You know, some of the fun house
segments. They had songs from Sunshine.
Those were complete, but these songs were shorter and that was
probably to save time and the hours, say commercial time or
whatever testing was done. Who knows?
(36:58):
Some of them were full songs though.
Not all of them, but some of them definitely were full
creations. But it's a long time ago.
Yeah, but I do want to mention again that on your album, you've
got a lot of Archie's hits, you've got a bunch of these
quickie songs, you've got the dances, a lot of songs we didn't
know that you'd done. It's hard to explain what a
(37:21):
phenomenon the Archies were in 69, it says on the back cover of
Jingle Jangle. This is the year of the Mets,
the moon landing and the Archies.
It was an amazing, amazing year.Man on the Moon and and the
Archies, Yeah. And we changed things.
We changed things. People really caught on and
other things came up that The Osmonds had their own animation
(37:42):
show, the Jackson Five had theirown band, the The Partridge
Family had their own animation. And it lasts.
It's all out there now for us. Let's tell the story of how the
Chan clan came about and when were you approached and what
were you working on at the time.I was approached to do the all
the music for this TV show that Don Kirchner was the music
(38:03):
supervisor before. Every time I get a phone call
from Don Kirchner, I would lightup because I knew it was
something special. Something good is going to come
out of this. Always involved in wonderful
projects. His rock concert show was a big
hit in the late 70s. He's always attached themselves
to great projects and he was. He had a really good ear for
(38:25):
songs. It was called the Chan Clan, the
Amazing Chan and the Chain Clan.How big is the band?
He said it's all his kids are inthe band.
It's just like the Archies. Write some songs, write a theme
song. He put me together with Howie
Greenfield, Howard Greenfield, who had of course written all
the Neil Sedaka hits and of course the Grammy award-winning
song of the year. Love will keep us together.
(38:46):
So The Chant Clan was another miracle of a show for us because
Howie and I took like 2 weeks towrite all those songs.
Howie Greenfield Night and I knew they had something, just
had something, you know? Then I took them in the studio
and I recorded them and I playedthem for the Bigwigs in a live
meeting and they've just loved them.
So I went in the studio, I recorded it, and then I started
(39:06):
to see the visuals of the Chant Clan and I said, wow, they were
beautiful kids. I just love it.
And they're cute stories. They're like whodunits.
So we wrote songs like I got thegoods on you.
This is. Such a mystery to me.
You play the game of kiss and run away pretending I was just
(39:29):
another guy. But honey, kisses don't lie.
Oh baby, quit starving this girl, I know you.
(39:55):
You know, singing on those is Barry Manilow and Melissa
Manchester. I brought them in.
I was working with Barry at the time.
He had not had a hit yet. He's what he's still working
with Bette Middle at the time. But I said Barry come in and
bring Melissa. I knew Melissa from some Jingle
days. So I got both of them to sing on
those songs. They're doing backgrounds with
me. A lot of fun to do The Chain
(40:16):
Clan and I knew it would be successful.
It was a kind of a different spin on things that never been
an Asian America cartoon show, especially with this legendary
character Charlie Chan. I was very surprised they did
not put an album out. Yeah, I always questioned
Donnie. I said Donnie, couldn't you?
We had 12 songs. You had the visuals, put out an
(40:38):
audio album like the Archies, and for some reason he didn't
get it done. And he had his own record label.
I don't know what the licensing gone into it was.
Something happened and we missedthat golden ring, because that
would have been a very successful album.
Those songs were very pop. They were very much like the
Archies, and they had the great theme of Charlie Chan and his
(41:00):
kids. So I was very happy to do it.
I loved Who'd. Done it.
Who'd done it? Who came and stole my heart
away? Who'd done it?
Who'd done it? Who made me feel this way?
Everyone had a hook. Everyone of those songs had a
hook and I just loved producing and singing them.
(41:21):
That's why I put a few on on theI wish I could find the original
tapes. I've called Kirchner's wife.
I nobody can find even down Kirchner's son.
Nobody has the original 24 masters.
I don't know where they went to or the original.
Just the master tapes that I did.
Some of them live, at least fouror five of them around.
Of those 12 that we, Howie and Iwrote.
(41:44):
It was a great time. Did you watch it?
Oh yeah and I have the DVD as well on and watched it all the
time. It was a breakthrough show
because Hannah Barbaric had a huge casting for that and cast
as many Asian actors as they could to play the principal
roles. Jodie Foster was one of the
children, but most of the familywas, and Key Luke was the voice
(42:07):
of Charlie Chan. So great was that I knew it
could be a big success just likethe Archies.
I just, oh, we just, Kirchner missed the boat on that one.
Unfortunately, he didn't make. I'm sure he would have done it
if he could have put it out as agreat album.
But he probably ran into logistics legal problems with
the owners of the Chan legacy, you know, whoever owned it and
(42:30):
something went on. The one they use is just an
instrumental. It.
(42:51):
Was a cute theme song, but it really doesn't tell the story of
the Chan clan. Mine did.
Mine was pop. It had words to it.
How would we feel? It was incredible.
That's interesting because Bill Hannah tended to favor themes
that told the story of the show and gave you all the characters.
That's why I Meet the Flintstones became the theme in
the third season because you have to explain all that to
(43:12):
everybody. So I would recommend to
everybody seek out this album. Ron Dante's Funhouse, Dan Parent
from Archie Comics did the greatcover of you like you're at Pops
and you knew Barry Manilow already.
Was this your first thing that you did together?
Were that thing that you'd hiredhim for or how did that begin?
I had met him on a commercial before the Chan clan recordings.
(43:34):
He had written a spot for Pepsi.It was a new product.
I was hired along with Valerie Simpson of Ashford and Simpson
and Melissa Manchester, and we were the group and Barry
Manilow, Ron Dante, Melissa and Valerie.
And I remember walking in the studio and listening to his
track and I said, this is a great track, great stuff.
This is like a pop song. He said, yeah, I know you.
He said, I know what you've done.
(43:55):
I the Archie's and the Cufflinksand all your other groups.
He said, I would like to be a soloist.
Would you listen to some of my songs?
And so next day I went to meet him and I listened to his songs
and he played me. Could it be Magic Wow.
Along with I Am Your Child and Sweet Life and a Sweetwater
Jones 4 songs. He played me and said we're
going to studio next week and sure enough we went in.
(44:16):
In a following week. We did some demos.
We put a thing together, a showcase for the record
companies and invited them down to see us, and Barry put the
band together. I sang in the band, and we got a
record contract out of that showcase with a label called
Bell Records. Yeah, which was the Partridge
Family in Tony Orlando. We did an album, and the album
(44:37):
did OK, but they finally sold a label to a big company that set
up Clive Davis as president and he renamed it Ariston and that
was it. Then we did a new album for
Clive and that became the Mandy album, and then we did another 5
or 6 albums together over the course of the 70s and into the
80s. It was a lot of fun.
A lot of people don't know that most of the backgrounds on all
(45:00):
of Barry Manilow's hits are justthe archies just doubling my
voice and singing all the highs and lows with Barry.
Barry and I did all the backgrounds.
We used to call ourselves the Barons because it's Barry and
Ron Dante. It was a great moment because we
knew a lot of people were going to hear what we did after Mandy.
But it was it was a trek. It was from 1973.
(45:22):
We met 7273, we signed our record deal.
We had a couple of things and then by January of 75, Mandy
hit. So it took some time.
You'd been producing things already for the archies and
stuff, but you're producing albums and then you got into
Broadway producing. Oh, yeah.
Later on in the 70s, I had the opportunity to become a Broadway
(45:42):
producer with friends of mine. My friend James Lipton and
Emanuel Azenberg were producing a show and they said, would you
like to be part of this show called Ain't Misbehavin, which
is the Fats Waller legacy of songs.
I went to listen to it. I heard it.
I said I'm in. This is going to be my second
Broadway show. The first one didn't do very
well, but I know this one's a success.
(46:03):
It's a music. It's really jumping cats and
check your hands by me the. Joy is jumping.
And sure enough, it ran for fouryears, and it was, I won a Tony
(46:23):
for it. Gene Kelly gave me my Tony.
Wow. It was like for a guy who's, you
know, a background studio singerwho became a producer, it was
like, what a high point. What a wonderful thing.
It's amazing. What's old is new again.
Sometimes the retro works. The Internet is open to
everybody up to everything. And it's funny, with the TV show
(46:44):
Riverdale that was on for four or five years, it sparked an
interest in the Archie's again. They actually use Jingle Jangle
on one of the shows on Riverdale.
They use Sugar, sugar there. So was a kind of a tip of the
hat to what had been. It didn't hurt.
And then there was just an Archie's movie that came from
India. Yeah, it was a Bollywood movie
on Netflix with all the characters but Indian teenagers.
(47:08):
It was a musical and I got a lotof publicity and I got a lot of
calls from India, a lot of emails from India saying what
are you doing? You're going to come visit
Mumbai to perform. I mean, it's, it's amazing what
happens. Sometimes when something's
remade or rebooted or done in a different way or all, it's like,
but don't win anywhere or as Captain Kirk would say, no blah
(47:28):
blah blah. Because if this is being
revived, there are a lot of people who will look a step
further. Even young people.
They say, where'd this come from?
What else is there? What else is Archie?
Because when I got into the Archies and the comics, it was
when the show was on and I just became a big fan of Archie in
general. And I love reading the stuff
from the 40s and the 50s too, and the radio show as well.
(47:50):
So if you enjoy an entity, you're going to look further.
And that's good for all the legacy stuff.
It's a good thing when the public is reminded.
Well, look at the success of Barbie.
I mean, it's a worldwide smash. They're doing the sequel
already, I'm sure. And who would have guessed that?
When I heard it was being made, I said, wonder what they going
(48:11):
to do with that? And sure enough, everybody
bought it. It's always good.
You know, look at the Chipmunks.Once animation on the big screen
was able to duplicate the Chipmunks, it became a brand new
franchise. It has been dormant for years
and years, so you never can tell.
You know, the technology helps everybody.
I have a friend who believed in Batman, and he got the very
(48:32):
first Michael Keaton Batman movie made and everybody said,
well, nobody wants it. The Batman's a, you know, a pop
TV show. He said no, no, it can be a
serious movie. And look at that franchise
today, and it's been 30 years orsomething, and it's one of the
most popular franchises ever, and it continues.
We have a mutual friend in BambiMOA because you produced music
(48:54):
for Disney Animation. Bambi let me produce some music
for The Little Mermaid TV show. Produced 4 songs.
The music with a smile never give up.
I in a little while with the on my shell.
(49:16):
When opportunity rings my bell, I'm giving up the thought of
ever giving up. I'm never giving up on.
You they came out just wonderfully.
It was great to work with her shoes.
She was a visionary. She knew what she was doing and
she did a great job. And as a Disney fan, that's how
you know from Enchanted, which was a great Alan Manken score.
(49:38):
That was on a Disney compilationthat they put out.
They called me and they wanted me to be part of it.
I said, wow, all these kids, allthese teens, and here I am.
See, that's how you know he loves you.
(49:58):
When the sky is grey, you find anew way to show you a little bit
every day. That's how you know that's how.
You know he's your love. See, you never can tell.
You never can tell. You were part of an era where a
(50:18):
lot of things changed and there was a lot of things that had
never been done before. Yeah, and true.
And at the time, you know, you just do it and you keep moving
from thing to thing. But it must be some
extraordinary thing to look backon.
It's wonderful and I love the reminisce.
I'm always very present, though.Some people say, are you living
in the past? I say no, no, the past is living
in me. Yeah, it's living in me and it's
(50:41):
just part of who I am. And I can refer to it when I
need to, but I always look forward also because I am a
musician, I am a singer and I can create stuff.
I can put it on a keyboard or a guitar, and before you know it,
it's real. I'm very fortunate to be able to
do that. You know, there's just, there's
too much to talk about and but Idefinitely want to get in what
(51:02):
you're doing now because you arebusier than ever.
If you follow Ron on his websiteor on his Facebook page, he's
everywhere. I am getting around the last six
years I've been on the Happy Together tour that boasts 6 acts
all singing their hits so I hopeto see everybody out there will
be in all the cities around America.
Just check ourhappytogether.tour.com.
(51:23):
Oh, that's classic, and it's still great.
It's still fantastic. There's so, so much here and
you've given so much, not only with your own talent, but the
talent that you've influenced and touched millions of people's
lives and are not and are so calm and modest about it.
It's. It's a big gift.
(51:43):
You know, I took all the opportunities that were put in
front of me and I prepared. I was ready as a vocalist, I was
ready as a singer, I was ready as a producer.
Just give me the opportunity waswhat I used to feel.
And eventually the phone rings or you call somebody or meet
somebody on the street and it comes about.
It's been a wonderful ride and I'll continue it as long as it
(52:03):
wants to go. You know, as long as the
creative juices flow, I will be doing this.
All I can do is quote ABBA and say thank you for the music and
thank you for the friendship andthank you so much for being with
us on the podcast and sharing somuch of this.
Greg, thanks for having me. Also, thanks to all of you
listening. Subscribe if you'd like, write a
(52:25):
nice review if you'd like, and we'll be with you next time.
Bye bye. We hope you enjoyed the
fantastic world of Hannah and Barbera with Greg Airborne.
Please join us again and Many thanks for listening.
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