![\"Ron](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Ron-Dante-performs-December-15th-2001-at-concert-to-benifit-Camelot-House-at-Stabler-University.jpg\")
Ron Dante is shown in 2001, 17 years before he became the new lead singer for The Turtles. (File photo)\n\u2018Caravan of Stars\u2019<\/p>\n
Few singers have been as widely heard but remain as little known as Ron Dante, who is now on the San Diego-bound \u201cHappy Together Tour\u201d as the lead singer in The Turtles. Fewer still scored their biggest successes \u2014 completely uncredited \u2014 in the 1960s as the fictional lead singer in the highest-rated Saturday morning cartoon TV series in history, then became the voice of Coca-Cola, Campbell\u2019s Soup, Dr. Pepper, McDonald\u2019s and Budweiser in ubiquitous national TV jingles.<\/p>\n
That series, \u201cThe Archie Show,\u201d debuted in 1968 as an adaptation of the popular comic book, \u201cArchie.\u201d Both iterations featured the titular teenage character and his pals Jughead, Betty, Veronica and Reggie, who were also the members of the animated band The Archies.<\/p>\n
The nonexistent group\u2019s frothy 1969 song, \u201cSugar, Sugar,\u201d was the biggest-selling single of the year in the U.S., topping the Rolling Stones\u2019 \u201cHonky Tonk Women,\u201d Creedence Clearwater Revival\u2019s \u201cProud Mary,\u201d The Beatles\u2019 \u201cGet Back\u201d and a slew of other classics. The song was later recorded by Wilson Pickett, Ike & Tina Turner and Bob Marley, among others.<\/p>\n
Dante was the lead singer on nearly all the singles and albums released under The Archies\u2019 moniker, including \u201cSugar, Sugar.\u201d It also rose to No. 1 in Mexico, Norway, South Africa, Brazil and 10 other countries. \u201cSugar, \u201cSugar\u201d did so, even though The Archies only existed in cartoon form and never performed a single concert or even a single song live.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very interesting when your song goes No. 1 and they play it on TV on \u2018The Ed Sullivan Show,\u2019 and all they play is the cartoon!\u201d said Dante, who will celebrate his 80th birthday on Aug. 22.<\/p>\n
He is set to perform here at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay on Friday and at Pechanga Resort Casino on Saturday with the current iteration of The Turtles, who headline the annual Happy Together Tour\u2019s 2025 edition. The lineup also includes Little Anthony and the current iterations of Jay & The Americans, The Vogues, Gary Puckett & The Union Gap and The Cowsills.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a journeyman singer and went where the work was,\u201d he explained. \u201cI was fine with the anonymity. When I took on the job with The Archies, it was right up front that I would not be credited or promoted as having anything to do with them. But all in all, it\u2019s been great for my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Was it easy or difficult for Dante to create a musical personality for cartoon characters?<\/p>\n
\u201cI was well-versed with The Archies because I\u2019d read all the \u2018Archie\u2019 comics and I knew what they were going for with the TV series,\u201d he replied, speaking from his Los Angeles home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe show had two new songs each week and was produced by Don Kirshner, who had achieved great success with \u2018The Monkees.\u2019 He had a great team with (songwriter) Jeff Barry, and I knew what voice to bring to \u2018Sugar, Sugar,\u2019 \u2018Bang-Shang-A-Lang\u2019 and the other Archies\u2019 songs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dante laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew we were not Led Zeppelin!\u201d he said. \u2018We were going for a younger market, a 9- to-13-year-old bubblegum market, of kids who were just discovering pop music. So, I put myself in that mindset and I knew I had to be respectful and sound clean cut.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1969, the year The Archies peaked, Dante also did all the vocals \u2014 again uncredited \u2014 on \u201cTracy,\u201d a No. 9 hit that was credited to another nonexistent group, The Cuff Links. To cash in on the song\u2019s success and a subsequent album for which Dante recorded all his parts in barely two days, a band called The Cuff Links was hastily assembled and sent out on tour without him.<\/p>\n
Dante was all of 23 when The Archies hit it big. But he was already a music-biz veteran who had written songs recorded by Jay & The Americans (\u201cRaining In My Sunshine\u201d) and Gary Lewis & The Playboys (\u201cIce Melts in the Sun\u201d). He went on to co-produce all of Barry Manilow\u2019s albums between 1973 and 1980, as well as albums by Ray Charles, Cher and others. He also contributed backing vocals to albums by Steely Dan and the hard-rocking power trio Mountain.<\/p>\n
Ron Dante is shown in 2001, 17 years before he became the new lead singer for The Turtles. (File photo)
\n\u2018Caravan of Stars\u2019<\/p>\n
Dante was just 18 when he co-founded a short-lived trio, The Detergents, which made one album. The group\u2019s lone hit, \u201cLeader of the Laundromat\u201d \u2014 a parody of The Shangri Las\u2019 1964 chart-topper, \u201cLeader of the Pack\u201d \u2014 rose no higher than No. 19 on the national Billboard charts.<\/p>\n
But before they washed out, The Detergents did a national Dick Clark \u201cCaravan of Stars\u2019 concert tour. It also featured Little Richard, The Animals and Little Anthony & The Imperials, whose lead singer, Anthony Goudine, is part of this year\u2019s Happy Together Tour and, at 84, the oldest artist in the lineup.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnthony is four years older than me and he still sounds like his 20-year-old self,\u201d Dante said. \u201cWe played cards together on the \u2018Caravan\u2019 tour bus in 1965. Now, we\u2019ve come full circle and we\u2019re on the bus together again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Happy Together Tour debuted in 1984 and was named after The Turtles\u2019 chart-topping 1967 hit, \u201cHappy Together.\u201d The tour ran through 1987 with a rotating cast of artists and The Turtles as the headliners. It resumed in 2010, again with The Turtles topping the bill each year.<\/p>\n
After he toured as an opening act on the 2017 Happy Together tour, Dante returned the next year to replace the ailing Howard Kaylan as the lead singer in The Turtles. He has retained that role on each subsequent tour, singing alongside Turtles\u2019 co-founder Mark Volman, who continued touring after being diagnosed in 2020 with Lewy body dementia. The same disease afflicted comedian Robin Williams before he committed suicide.<\/p>\n
A number of bands that rose to fame in the 1960s continue to tour. But few of them still have any original members left in their current iterations.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople don\u2019t really know who is in The Association or The Grass Roots. They know the songs,\u201d said Dante, who performs several Archies\u2019 hits during The Turtles\u2019 Happy Together Tour sets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Mark called me in 2018 and asked me to be the lead singer in The Turtles, he said: \u2018You have to be true to the music. You\u2019re not Howard; we\u2019re not going to dress you up in costumes and have you do comedy. So, honor the songs and do them the way we recorded them\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2025 Happy Together Tour, featuring The Turtles, Jay & The Americans, Little Anthony, Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, The Vogues, and The Cowsills<\/p>\n
When:<\/strong> 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 11<\/p>\n Where:<\/strong> Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, 2241 Shelter Island Drive, Shelter Island<\/p>\n Tickets:<\/strong> $84.85<\/p>\n