When it comes to making out, guys who want to win girls over are thankful to Mike Damone for this timeless truth: Whenever feasible, put on side one of Led Zeppelin IV.
Fans of the 1982 coming-of-age adolescent comedy film Fast Times at Ridgemont High are appreciative of actor Robert Romanus’ portrayal of Damone, a high school student who snatches concert tickets and presents himself as a dapper love expert.
When Romanus visits Flagler Beach this weekend, he will be channeling Mike Damone. Romanus’s film and television credits also include American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, The Facts of Life (as Snake), Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless, CHiPs, 21 Jump Street, MacGyver, Will & Grace, and many more. The event: On Sunday, June 29, Romanus will appear in a video shoot at the Flagler Pier for the Cherry Drops, a pop-rock group fronted by singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, radio deejay, and Flagler Beach local Vern Shank.
Romanus is a lifelong friend, according to Shank, who spent the 1980s kicking around Los Angeles, growing his hair to his butt, performing in a hair metal band called the Cheap Sneakers, and forming relationships and friendships in the music and movie industries.
“Like many Cherry Drops films, the video for this weekend’s shoot of the new song, I Dedicate This Song to You, will have a storyline; there’s always a storyboard with a beginning and an ending,” explains Shank, the band’s founder from 2012. I felt privileged when our 2013 song “Outta Sight” music video took home the Best Short Film award at the Flagler Film Festival.
When Shank isn’t playing rock ‘n’ roll, he runs Pyramid Productions, a multimedia entertainment business he started that includes radio station Surf 97.3 FM, which has a studio on the Flagler Pier, and event deejaying. In addition, he produces First Fridays on Flagler Beach.
According to Shank, Bob will be filmed as he exits his car and makes his way to the radio station for I Dedicate This Song to You. He is recognized by a few people outside the pier, who ask him whether he has any tickets to the Cherry Drops event. a reference to his well-known performance in Fast Times as a guy who stole tickets to Earth, Wind, and Fire, Cheap Trick, and Blue Oyster Cult.
Unfortunately, Shank continues, the few extras required for the video shoot have already been scheduled.
Shank and the Cherry Drops, whose music he describes as a modern take on the retro vibe music that echoes 60s rock, bubblegum pop, and the power pop of the 70s, as exemplified by the Beach Boys, the Archies, the Beatles, the Raspberries, Cheap Trick, Badfinger, and others, are having amazing times, and the new video is just one aspect of that. (It’s no little matter that Shank is also contributing to the preservation of Flagler Beach’s prominence while providing the 98-year-old pier with its final flourish before it is removed and replaced with a concrete pier.)
A long-awaited animated film featuring Archies singer Ron Dante is part of the latest Cherry Drops news, and the band was admitted into the California Music Hall of Fame in April 2024, which reflects Shank’s connections to the state.
Since 2018, the Cherry Drops band has been consistent, with drummer Jimmy Mason and bassist Jamie Markowski joining co-founding lead guitarist Josh Cobb.
According to Shank, he was raised halfway between Lancaster, home of the Amish, and Philadelphia. He was cast as an extra in the Harrison Ford film Witness while he was in the eleventh grade. Although he was not compensated, the work gave him a fantastic benefit: he and his parents were allowed to see the film’s premiere at Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
According to Shank, they took us in a limousine. I was wearing a tuxedo. Naturally, no one knew who I was, but when I had the opportunity to walk the red carpet, I thought, “This is what I want to do.” I therefore moved to Los Angeles as soon as I graduated from high school. All those years, I had a part-time work. I spent almost six months living in my car behind Pauly Shore’s Comedy Store while attending music and film school.
“Fail forward” is one of Shank’s favorite phrases. In 1999, he moved to Daytona Beach, then in 2004, he moved to Flagler Beach.
However, he claims that he preserved all of his connections in California. His purchase of a travel trailer, which he keeps in a Hollywood RV park when not in use as a temporary abode in La La Land, significantly aided him in achieving that goal.
Shank admits that he started the radio station to meet new people in case I didn’t already know him from LA. I would conduct interviews with them, then thereafter, when I was speaking with them on the phone, I would use the occasion to casually mention that I really enjoyed their music. I play in a band called the Cherry Drops. Would you be interested in joining us if we wrote a song that resembles anything you guys would have done?
Shank goes on to say that the Cherry Drops have been extremely fortunate to collaborate, record, and/or perform with such legendary artists as the late Gary DeCarlo of Steam, Dennis Tufano of the Buckinghams, Steve Boone of the Lovin Spoonful (who used to live on the Palm Coast), Tony Valentino of the Standells, and Mark Dawson of the Grass Roots.
Shank says that since 2005, he has been friends with Christian Love, a singer-guitarist who has been with his father, Mike Love, who co-founded the Beach Boys, in their touring band. According to Shank, “I’m kind of in that circle of the Beach Boys.”
Shank grew close to the Archies. after delivering him a demo of the Cherry Drops’ rendition of the Archies song “Everything’s All Right,” Ron Dante, the real-life lead vocalist of that archetypal fictional band. Baby Boomers may remember that in the late 1960s, Dante and other session musicians created sticky-sweet bubblegum pop classics like Sugar Sugar and Bang-Shang-A-Lang for a Saturday morning TV cartoon series about the Archies.
Ron leaves “Oh my God,” Shank remembers, “no one has ever done an Archies song justice like you did.” After giving us some advice to improve some of the harmonies and other things, he offered us a tremendous quote, which is a public endorsement.
The song, “Life Is a Bowl of Cherry Drops,” from the band’s 2015 album, paved the way for Dante to work with Shank and company on “Happynessville,” which is featured on the Cherry Drops’ 2018 album, “Good to the Last Drop.”
Meanwhile, Little Steven Van Zandt’s syndicated rock ‘n’ roll radio show, Little Steven’s Underground Garage, featured the Cherry Drops song “Outta Sight” as one of its monthly Coolest Songs in the World selections in 2014. Yes, the Little Steven who played a mob captain in The Sopranos and played guitar for Bruce Springsteen.
The Cherry Drops were inducted into the California Music Hall of Fame in April 2024 as a result of this activity. Tufano, whose group the Buckinghams achieved a No. 1 success in the 1960s with Kind of a Drag, inducted the band after they played at the induction event.
Among the previous honorees are Chuck Negron of Three Dog Night, Dante, Tufano, Ritchie Valens, LeAnn Rimes, BJ Thomas, Rick Derringer, Canned Heat, Gary Puckett, Cannibal and the Headhunters, and others.
Only last week, Shank and the other members of the Cherry Drops received yet another accolade that has placed them in the same prestigious group as U2, Elton John, Kiss, the Ramones, James Brown, Britney Spears, Metallica, and other rock and pop stars: They’re now cartoons!
Although those celebrities made animated appearances on The Simpsons and other television programs, the Cherry Drops debuted a new animated music video for their 2018 song “Happynessville” on June 20. The video features the original Dante recording. The video is the result of a six-year, tragic journey from inception to completion, and features Shank and his fellow Cherry Drops appearing rather Archie-esque beside a contemporary cartoon version of Dante.
Before starting production on the Cherry Drops video in 2019, Shank’s friend, animation artist Sue Bielenberg, had previously worked on animated programs such as The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and Rug Rats. But halfway through the project, Bielenberg abruptly passed away from a heart attack, according to Shank.
According to Shanks, Bielenberg collaborated on the project as an understudy alongside special effects animator Craig Clark. Despite having a long list of credits that includes work on movies like Mask, Forrest Gump, and Big Trouble in Little China, Clark was not granted access to Bielenberg’s files.
After around three and a half years, Shank describes, “I suddenly get this email from Sue’s daughter out of the blue.” You don’t know me, but I’m Sue’s daughter, and I think you could find something interesting. When we eventually managed to access my mother’s computers, we extracted these files and discovered the video she had been working on.
She asked, “Do you want these files?” after finding my contact details on Google. and I say, “Oh my God, yes!”
After Shank got in touch with Clark, who completed the project around a month ago, it made its debut today. According to Shank, the film is currently accessible on his Facebook page and will soon be accessible on YouTube and other streaming services.
While these days the Cherry Drops perform live only infrequently, and the band mostly releases intermittent singles instead of dropping an entire album at one time, Shank has committed himself to releasing two videos a year: on the first day of summer, and on his birthday, Nov. 21.
Cherry Drops fans may anticipate the release of the I Dedicate This Song to You music video, which features a cameo by Robert Mike Damone Romanus, on November 21. The new Happynessville music video is already out.
Yampert, Rick, for FlaglerLive
