Ron Dante (born Carmine Granito on August 22, 1945, on Staten Island, New York) is an American singer, songwriter, session vocalist, and record producer. Dante is best known as the lead singer for the fictional cartoon band The Archies, as well as the one-hit wonder group The Cuff Links. He is also well known as the Co-Producer of Barry Manilow's first nine albums. Ron Dante did a 1975 CBS TV pilot show called Hip Patches. He did an interview with a group of young musicians in a band named Silvermoon.

Career

The Archies single "Sugar, Sugar", written by producer Jeff Barry with Andy Kim, was the number-one selling record of 1969 in the United States. Four years earlier, Dante was a member of the parody group The Detergents, who recorded a novelty song called "Leader of the Laundromat". Concurrent with his work on the Archies project, Dante was also employed as a session singer and performed many television and commercial jingles.

In 1969, Dante recorded an album under the group name of The Cuff Links, for his old Detergents songwriter-producers Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss. Providing both lead and background vocals through overdubbing (as he did with most of the male Archies' vocals) Dante hit the U.S. Top Ten with the single "Tracy," at the same time that "Sugar, Sugar" occupied the top of the chart. Dante was anonymous on both tracks. Contrary to popular belief, the lead verses of another Archies single, "Jingle Jangle" (portrayed as being sung by either Betty or Veronica), were not sung by a female vocalist, but rather by Dante using falsetto vocals.