Tenderly
My Reverie
The Three Suns
Cover photo by Mitchell Bliss
RCA Victor LPM-1173
1956
From the back cover:
From more than a decade The Three Suns have been right at the top of the heap of popular musical groups. The reason for their success is easier to name than to explain. They play the kind of music most people want to hear and they play it the way most people want to hear it. Other musicians have the same intention, but they've lacked the Sun's uncanny flair for knowing what will please. And they can be pretty sure they've hit on the right answers because they continue to be in heavy demand in night spots, on the road (SRO wherever they appear), on radio, and on their RCA Victor records.
Chances are, if you were to spend an evening at one of the supper clubs with The Three Suns you'd have a hilarious time, because the boys are born – as well as experienced – entertainers. As guitarist Al Nevins puts it, "If we're not throwing notes, we're throwing gags." They kid themselves, the customers, the music, and anything and everything that comes to hand. They enjoy themselves hugely. So do the customers.
They're too smart as entertainers to gag all the time. Besides, the customers have come to hear them play; and they themselves are expert musicians who love to make music. So they settle down and play the songs – pop standards and semi-classics – their fans love to hear.
For this RCA Victor collection, they've chosen such a program. It includes two classics, Beethoven's beloved Moonlight Sonata and Debussy's Reverie, in Larry Clinton's arrangement. The others are all-time favorites that sound new and different as played by Al Nevin's guitar, Artie Dunn's organ and Mortie Nevin's accordion.
Al and Mortie are brothers, and Artist is their cousin. They got their name when Al and Mortie's mother greeted the three of them one day with "Here come my three sons." The name clicked with them at once and, with just a change of vowel, they had their professional title.
The boys got together and launched their career in 1939, opening for the Adelphia Hotel in Philadelphia. They hit New York in November 1940, debuting at the Piccadilly Hotel, where they were so popular they stayed for ten years.
The boys were the first musicians ever to employ their combination of guitar, accordion and organ. Their success has produced many imitators, but none have managed to duplicate the sure touch and feeling for melody which has made them such a hit.
In describing the unique instrumental effect they achieve, Mortie says, "the accordion takes the cross figures and single note melody, which is easy to listen to; then Al on guitar plays a steady, rotating, rolling beat, while Artie, on organ, keeps up a sustained background."
They're composers too, and their theme song "Twilight Time, is one of their most successful recordings. "You should read some of our mail," say Mortie. "That number seems to have romantic memories for about half the country. Not only has it brought people together for the first time, but estranged couples often ask us to play it on the air, of come in here to see if they can't recapture 'that old feeling.' And believe me, it seems to work."
My Reverie
Moon Glow
Intermezzo
Smoke Rings
The Legend Of The Glass Mountain
Tenderly
My Silent Love
Moonlight Sonata
April In Paris
Laura
Jet
Petite Waltz
