During and after his stint as The Archies and The Cufflinks, Ron was also working as a jingle singer, recording commercials for such companies as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Coppertone. He briefly enjoyed a solo career before turning his sights to production. During a session in the studio one day, Ron met the writer of the jingle he was working on. The product they were musically pitching was a new soft drink that very quickly went flat, but that day the die was cast for a friendship and lucrative partnership between Ron and Barry Manilow. Ron listened to some of Barry's compositions, liked what he heard, and offered to work with the talented young man if Barry would break away from Bette Midler, with whom he was working as arranger and pianist, and record under his own name. The rest is music history. Ron produced all of Barry's platinum LPs and eighteen Top Ten singles from 1973 through 1981. Ron also did production work for Cher, Irene Cara, Pat Benatar, and John Denver.
After years of production work, Ron decided to pick up the singing career he'd briefly put on hold. His current CD, "Favorites," Ron's versions of his favorite songs of the late Sixties, was released in 1999, and Ron is also in the happy process of re-releasing The Archies albums on CD. |
