Ron Dante

Carmine John Granito (born August 22, 1945), known professionally as Ron Dante, is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. Dante is best known as the real-life lead singer of the fictional cartoon band the Archies; he was also the vocalist of the Cuff Links and co-produced Barry Manilow's first nine albums.

Dante was born Carmine John Granito to an Italian-American family in Staten Island, New York, United States.

Career The Detergents

Dante was a member of the parody group the Detergents around 1965. The group recorded a novelty song called "Leader of the Laundromat", although Dante was not on that recording.

Solo recordings Dante's first album release under his own name, which he recorded on Don Kirshner's label, was Ron Dante Brings You Up in 1970. Dante appeared on a 1975 CBS TV pilot show called Hip Patches. He is interviewed by a group of young musicians in a band named Silvermoon who were meant to be the stars of the show. On that show, he is introduced as the voice of "all five Archies" and explains to the audience what it takes to be a successful band.

In 1979, he recorded a disco album under the name Dante's Inferno for the Infinity Records label, and in 1981 his second solo album Street Angel was released. on the Cashbox singles chart. In 1978, Dante produced the Tony Award-winning musical revue, Ain't Misbehavin', on Broadway. During this period, Dante, who was a Manhattan neighbor of George Plimpton, was invited to serve as the publisher of the Paris Review, as whose publisher he served from 1978 to 1985.

Other work In 1982, Dante sang the theme song for the NBC sitcom Silver Spoons, "Together".

An album, Favorites, was released in 1999, and another CD, Saturday Night Blast, was issued in 2004. The extended play California Weekend CD was released in 2006.

Dante appeared with the CBS Orchestra on the Late Show with David Letterman on July 28, 2010.

In mid-2018, Dante joined the Happy Together tour, filling in for the Turtles' Howard Kaylan, who was sidelined owing to health problems.