Ron Dante Remembers the Detergents

In November 1964, the girl group, the Shangri-Las had a No. 1 hit with the teen tragedy song "Leader of the Pack," but the songwriting team of Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss didn't see it as a tragedy at all. They saw an opportunity to write a hilarious send-up of the hit song and they called it "Leader of the Laundromat."

Now they needed a group to sing it. Paul Vance recruited his nephew, Danny Jordan to come over with his friends and co-workers to sing the song.

Danny Jordan, Tommy Wynn and Ron Dante (known at the time as Ronnie) were all working at Screen Gems Music Publishing Company at the time. Dante had previously recorded a Lee Pockriss song called "Don't Stand Up in my Canoe," which got a little radio play but didn't go anywhere.

When the boys went over to sing the laundromat parody song, Ron Dante says: "We did it in pieces and never heard the complete record until it was released a week later. Things happened really fast in the mid 60s. Tommy Wynn did the lead and Danny and I did backgrounds ... it became a pretty big radio hit and even sold 900 thousand copies I was told."

WATCH LEADER OF THE LAUNDROMAT

Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss capitalized on the popularity of "Leader of the Laundromat," writing more songs for The Detergents, like "The Little Ol' Doctor from Ipanema," who comes to the aid of the injured laundress. Ron sang lead on "Double-O-Seven" (about a guy whose girl neglects him to watch James Bond movies). "Mrs. Jones ('Ow About it)" was a takeoff on Herman's Hermit's "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter" (I have this on 45 in my collection) and "I Can Never Eat at Home Anymore" parodied a later Shangri-Las song, "I Can Never Go Home Anymore."

The Detergents went out on tour: "We toured with the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars for 6 months along with Herman's Hermits, Freddy and The Dreamers, Little Anthony and The Imperials, Bobby Vee and we even did a gig with The Rolling Stones in Philadelphia that year," Ron Dante recalls. "All in all, it was lots of fun and I had a terrific time with all the acts."

The group also had an album called "The Many Faces of The Detergents," released on CD in 1999, which is available on Amazon. In just a few years, Ron Dante would go on to have a No. 1 hit as the voice of "Sugar, Sugar" by The Archies.

Sources: Ron Dante, www.rondante.com
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