Sunday, April 29, 2012

You Know the Voice: Meet the "real" Archie (1968)

You know, pilgrims, I just couldn't pass this one up. Rather than an animated clip from The Archie Show, why not meet the man who was the singing voice for Archie Andrews back in the day?

Ron Dante is better known these days as a producer and session sidekick to Barry Manilow, but in the 60's, he created a number of novelty bands, including the Detergents, who parodied the Shangri-La's' "Leader of the Pack" with "Leader of the Laundromat", before being tapped by Don Kirshner in 1968 to be the lead vocalist for the Archies. In this clip, taken from an airing on VH1 Classic way before they adopted their current logo, Dante resorts to multiple exposures of himself, playing all the instruments (apparently Andy Kim, Toni Wine, and whomever else was in the studio with him back in '68 wasn't available) to perform "Sugar, Sugar", the Archies' signature #1 hit.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

One of my all time favorite songs!

I can't help but wonder if this was the reason why Phil Collins developed a penchant for using "clones" of himself for his solo videos.

hobbyfan said...

Actually, I think Collins might've gotten the idea from Paul McCartney, whom in turn got it from some Buster Keaton silent movies.......