THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
2,029) The Eighth Day — “Building with a Steeple”
Sugar, this is a sweet sunshine pop B-side written by the Archies’ Ron Dante (and Gene Allan). Yes, the building is a church.
Buckeyebeat tells us about the Eighth Day:
The story of the Eighth Day involves two bands, the Sons Of Liberty and the Opus IV, and two girls from SW Ohio, Nancy Pettit . . . and Melanie Ross . . . . According to former members of the Sons of Liberty, they were playing at Club 22 and owner Joe Gorlock called up one of his musical connection in NYC – Bob Feldman – and held the phone as they played so Feldman could hear them. Feldman was one third of the Feldman/Goldstein/Goteherer team that were the Strangeloves and produdced the McCoys. He . . . requested the band come to NYC to audition. The Sons of Liberty played their songs but Feldman had a different idea. Gorlock knew Nancy and Melanie and between Gorlock and Feldman they wanted to make a ‘soft rock’ style group with male/female vocals. The producers brought a couple of their ‘go-to’ songwriters, Gene Allen and Ron Dante, who pushed their songs onto the band. They auditioned for several record companies and signed with Kapp Records. Over the summer of 1967 they all spent time at Mayfair Recording Studio in NYC working on a album’s worth of songs. Eventually, the lack of control got to the young and eager SOL and they quit, leaving only drummer Jim Brandolino. Gorlock went right to Plan B, which was Club 22 favorite, the Opus IV. The Opus IV completed the album recording and took over the identity. With two drummers among the 7 members, Bill Gunion and Jim Brandolino took turns. The other members were Bob Parissi (guitar), Vito D’Aurora (keyboards), and John (Dale) Lesnansky (bass). Finally, late in 1967, the first Eighth Day 45 “Hey Boy! (This Girls In Love With You) was issued in pic sleeve that showed the SOL version – with the Opus IV recording! The 45 took off and reached the charts in a few markets with Nashville really getting behind the record . . . . When the LP was released, the cover photos and promo material had the Opus IV version with the SOL version written off. According to the SOL webpage, they played/sang on 6 of the LP songs . . . [including] “Building With A Steeple” . . . and the Opus IV on the other five. After the initial promo push with the first 45 and LP, Kapp seemd to lose interest. There were two more 45s released, and the band lasted until the fall of 1968.
“Building with a Steeple” was also released by the Village East, as 23 Daves relates:
Some collectors assumed that this one never made it past the promo stage, for example, but here’s the stock copy as living proof . . . . “Building With A Steeple” . . . [lost] any edgy credibility it might have with a Christian message and yet sounding so downright lovely it’s hard to understand how anyone could resist. There’s not much originality present here as the vocal harmonies and arrangements echo the likes of The Mamas and Papas [see #1,734] but crucially it’s not inferior to their work in any way and was clearly extremely unlucky not to have sold in greater quantities. There’s a yearning to the vocals and an intricacy to the delicately strummed and plucked arrangements which would soothe the most troubled soul, and like all the best West Coast sounds from the period it sounds simultaneously lush and sincere. . . . Sadly, The Village East didn’t release any singles after this one effort, as apparently the lead singer . . . immediately left to pursue an unsuccessful career as a solo artist after this flopped. . . . As for the song, it was also recorded by The Eighth Day (with a near-identical arrangement) and Frank Sinatra Jr.
https://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-village-east-building-with-steeple.html?m=1
Tim Sendra writes of Ron Dante:
[Ron Dante’s] voice featured on a couple of the biggest pop hits of the late ’60s (the Archies’ “Sugar, Sugar” and the Cuff Links’ “Tracy”), he worked as musical director for Barry Manilow in the ’70s, and he sang on some of the most ubiquitous commercials of the era, including the iconic “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” for Coke. . . . The Elvis-loving preteen . . . was playing and singing in a neighborhood doo wop band called the Persuaders. At the age of 15, the youngster, now known professionally as Ron Dante, headed to Manhattan to break into the music business. After a few false starts, he ended up working as a demo singer for Don Kirshner’s Aldon Music. He released “Little Lollipop,” his first single under the name Ronnie Dante, in 1964 on the Almot label, but it didn’t go anywhere. Neither did his next, the novelty song “Don’t Stand Up in a Canoe.” In a twist that foreshadowed his future career path, Dante did have a hit in 1964 as the anonymous singer of the “Leader of the Pack” parody “Leader of the Laundromat” by the invented group the Detergents. He spent the next few years writing songs for Bobby Darin’s company and releasing singles that didn’t worry the charts much. In 1968, his life changed when he auditioned for a new project Don Kirshner and producer Jeff Barry were working on and got the gig as lead singer. The band was the Archies and the first record to come out was “Bang-Shang-A-Lang.” It was a hit, but the next song they released defined an era. “Sugar, Sugar” launched the bubblegum sound and reached number one on the singles chart. The Archies project continued for a few more years, with the hits drying up and Dante learning the ins and outs of record production, eventually helming their final album, 1971’s This Is Love. During that time, he was free to work with other producers and he teamed with Paul Vane and Lee Pockriss on the smash 1969 song “Tracy,” credited to the Cuff Links. Dante released his first solo album, Ron Dante Brings You Up in 1970, with Jeff Barry producing and Dante co-writing most of the songs. It didn’t take off the way anyone hoped and Dante went back to releasing one-off singles under his own and other names . . . . He also did plenty of work singing commercial jingles . . . . At one of these sessions he met Barry Manilow, who was working as Bette Midler’s piano player and as a composer of jingles. The two hit it off and began recording demos of Manilow’s songs. Their hard work paid off in 1974 when “Mandy” became a huge hit and launched the singer’s career. Dante became Manilow’s musical director and producer throughout the 1970s. At the same time, Dante released singles under his own name and under pseudonyms . . . , even cutting a disco remake of “Sugar, Sugar” in 1975. He also rode the disco wave with Dante’s Inferno, a late-’70s group . . . . Around this time Dante began to branch out from music, becoming a Broadway producer and winning Tonys for 1978’s Ain’t Misbehavin’ and 1980’s Children of a Lesser God.
Here is Frank Sinatra Jr.:
Here is the Village East:
Surprise, here is Gnarls Barkley:
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