The Three Suns
Encyclopedia
The Three Suns was an American
instrumental
pop
group
, popular in the 1940s and 1950s.
The group was formed in 1939 by Al Nevins
(guitar
) and Morty Nevins (accordion
) and Artie Dunn (vocals
, electronic organ
), . Their first hit record
was "Twilight Time
", which was written by the band along with Buck Ram
. "Twilight Time" sold over four million copies and was awarded a gold disc
. It was followed by "Peg O' My Heart", which was one of the best-selling records of 1947 in the United States.
The group underwent several lineup changes in the 1950s, and broke up briefly in the middle of the decade before Dunn resurrected the name with a new lineup. The group's popularity waned and its historical significance was essentially forgotten in the wake of rock and roll
, but interest in the ensemble was renewed in the 1990s by fans of lounge music
and exotica
. The band is also notable in that they were reputed to have been the favorite musical group of former First Lady Mamie Eisenhower
.
Founding member Al Nevins was also co-founder of Aldon Music
, a Brill Building
songwriting company.
Later members
Albums
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
instrumental
Instrumental
An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....
pop
Traditional pop music
Traditional pop or classic pop or standards music denotes, in general, Western popular music that either wholly predates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s, or to any popular music which exists concurrently to rock and roll but originated in a time before the appearance of rock and roll,...
group
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
, popular in the 1940s and 1950s.
The group was formed in 1939 by Al Nevins
Al Nevins
Al Nevins, born Albert Tepper , was a renowned musician, producer, arranger, guitarist and violinist. He was also member of a pop trio called the Three Suns and is considered one of the major forces behind the evolution of the 1950s music into the early 1960s pop/rock music.-The Three Suns:Al...
(guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
) and Morty Nevins (accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
) and Artie Dunn (vocals
Human voice
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. Its frequency ranges from about 60 to 7000 Hz. The human voice is specifically that part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary...
, electronic organ
Electronic organ
An electronic organ is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally, it was designed to imitate the sound of pipe organs, theatre organs, band sounds, or orchestral sounds....
), . Their first hit record
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
was "Twilight Time
Twilight Time (song)
"Twilight Time" is a popular song with lyrics by Buck Ram, and the music by The Three Suns .Original hits of "Twilight Time" included the Three Suns and Les Brown & His Band of Renown ....
", which was written by the band along with Buck Ram
Buck Ram
Buck Ram was an American songwriter, and popular music producer and arranger.-Biography:...
. "Twilight Time" sold over four million copies and was awarded a gold disc
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
. It was followed by "Peg O' My Heart", which was one of the best-selling records of 1947 in the United States.
The group underwent several lineup changes in the 1950s, and broke up briefly in the middle of the decade before Dunn resurrected the name with a new lineup. The group's popularity waned and its historical significance was essentially forgotten in the wake of rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, but interest in the ensemble was renewed in the 1990s by fans of lounge music
Lounge music
Lounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a type of mood music meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place — a jungle, an island paradise, outer space, et cetera — other than where they are listening to it...
and exotica
Exotica
Exotica is a musical genre, named after the 1957 Martin Denny album of the same title, popular during the 1950s to mid-1960s, typically with the suburban set who came of age during World War II. The musical colloquialism, exotica, means tropical ersatz: the non-native, pseudo experience of Oceania...
. The band is also notable in that they were reputed to have been the favorite musical group of former First Lady Mamie Eisenhower
Mamie Eisenhower
Mamie Geneva Doud Eisenhower was the wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and First Lady of the United States from 1953 to 1961.-Early life:...
.
Founding member Al Nevins was also co-founder of Aldon Music
Aldon Music
Aldon Music was a New York-based music publishing company, founded by Don Kirshner and Al Nevins in 1958. Aldon is regarded as having played a significant role in shaping the so-called "Brill Building Sound" in the late 1950s and 1960s....
, a Brill Building
Brill Building
The Brill Building is an office building located at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and further uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood...
songwriting company.
Members
Founding members- Artie Dunn - vocals, organ (died January 15, 1996, age 73)
- Al NevinsAl NevinsAl Nevins, born Albert Tepper , was a renowned musician, producer, arranger, guitarist and violinist. He was also member of a pop trio called the Three Suns and is considered one of the major forces behind the evolution of the 1950s music into the early 1960s pop/rock music.-The Three Suns:Al...
- guitar (died January 25, 1965, age 48) - Morty Nevins - accordion (died July 23, 1990, age 63)
Later members
- Johnny Buck (Bucky PizzarelliBucky PizzarelliJohn Paul "Bucky" Pizzarelli is an American Jazz guitarist and banjoist, and the father of jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli and upright bassist Martin Pizzarelli. Pizzarelli has also worked for NBC as a staffman for Dick Cavett and also ABC with Bobby Rosengarden in...
) - guitar - Joe NegriJoe NegriJoseph Harold Negri is a jazz guitarist and educator from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During his years as Musical Director at WTAE-TV, he appeared on the former children's television show Paul Shannon's Adventure Time and other locally-produced shows on the station...
- guitar - Joe Vento - accordion, piano
- Johnny Romano - guitar
- Tony Lovello - accordion
- Del Casher (Del Kacher) - guitar
Discography
The first records released by The Three Suns, during the 1940s and 1950s, were 78 rpm. In 1949 RCA Victor released their first 10 inch LP. Between 1950-1954, 10-inch albums were released. In 1955 The Three Suns released their first 12 inch lp "Soft & Sweet" and in 1958 released their first stereo LP. In 1956 RCA started recording in stereo. From 1958 until 1969 RCA Victor mixed two versions for each LP release with the prefixes "LPM" for mono and "LSP" for stereo; however there are some stereo releases with mono counterparts that were released before 1958. There may be double entries in the following list for that reason. RCA changed their prefix to reflect the discontinuation of mono in the early 1970s.Albums
- Twilight Time (Varsity, 6001, 1950) (10 inch)
- Midnight Time (Varsity, 6048, 1950) (10 inch)
- You and the night and the Music (RCA Victor, 47-4202A, 1951) (7 INCH 45 RPM)
- Your's is my heart alone (RCA Victor, 47-4202B, 1951) (7 INCH 45 RPM)
- Twilight Time (Royale, 1, 1951) (10 inch)
- Midnight Time (Royale, 29, 1951) (10 inch)
- Three Quarter Time (RCA Victor, LPM-3, 1951) (10 inch)
- Hands Across The Table (RCA Victor, lpm-28, 1951)(10 inch)
- Twilight Moods (RCA Victor, LPM-3012, 1952) (10 inch)
- The Three Suns Present (RCA Victor, LPM-3034, 1952) (10 inch)
- Busy Fingers (RCA Victor, LPM-3040, 1952)
- Christmas Party (RCA Victor, LPM-3056, 1952) (10 inch)
- Soft and Sweet (RCA Victor, 1955) U.S. #13
- Sounds of Christmas (RCA Victor, LPM-1132, 1955)
- Twilight Time (RCA Victor, LPM-1171, 1956)
- My Reverie (RCA Victor, LPM-1173, 1956)
- Slumber Time (RCA Victor, LPM-1219, 1956)
- High Fi and Wide (RCA Victor, 1956) U.S. #19
- Easy Listening (RCA Victor LPM-1316, 1956)
- Midnight for Two (RCA Victor, 1957) U.S. #16
- malaguena (RCA Victor lpm-1220, 1956)
- Things I Love In Hi-Fi (RCA Victor, LPM/LSP-1543, 1958)
- Let's Dance With The Three Suns (RCA Victor, LPM/LSP-1578, 1958)
- Happy Go Lucky Sound (RCA Victor, 1958)
- My Reverie (RCA Victor, LSP-1173, 1958)
- Love in the Afternoon (RCA Victor, LPM/LSP-1669, 1959)
- Having A Ball with The Three Suns (RCA Victor, LPM/LSP-1734, 1959)
- Swingin' On A Star (RCA Victor, LPM/LSP-1964, 1959)
- A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas (RCA Victor, LPM/LSP-2054, 1959)
- At the Candlelight Cafe (RCA Camden, 1959)
- Twilight Memories" (RCA Victor, LPM/LSP-2120, 1960)
- On a Magic Carpet (RCA Victor, LPM/LSP-2235, 1960)
- Dancing On A Cloud (RCA Victor, LPM/LSP-2307, 1961)
- Fever & Smoke (RCA Victor LPM/LSP-2310, 1961)
- In Orbit (Rondo, 1962)
- Movin' 'N' Groovin (RCA Victor LPM/LSP-2532, 1962)
- Warm and Tender (RCA Victor LPM/LSP-2617, 1962)
- Everything Under the Sun (RCA Victor, LPM/LSP-2715, 1963)
- One Enchanted Evening (RCA Victor LPM/LSP-2904, 1963)
- A Swinging Thing (RCA Victor LPM/LSP-2963)
- Country Music SHINDIG (RCA Victor LPM/LSP-3354)
- Fun In The Sun (RCA Victor LPM/LSP-2437)
- Continental Affair (RCA Camden CAL 573)
- The Best Of The Three Suns (RCA Victor LPM/LSP-3447(e), 1966)
- This Is The Three Suns (RCA Victor VPS-6075, 1971)