The Tune Tones (1) (Brooklyn, NY)

Personnel :

Gilbert Kaplan

Allen Levy

Discography :

1959 - Please Baby Please / Little Sandy (Herald 524)
1959 - She's Right For Me / Lonesome Soul (Herald 539)

Biography :

The Tune Tones, who recorded for Herald Records in the late 1950s, were formed in Brooklyn by two friends, Allen Levy and Gilbert Kaplan.  Kaplan heard Levy playing the piano in the gym at Tilden High School, and told him that he knew somebody in the music business.  The two wrote some songs and then went to Manhattan and auditioned for Jim Gribble, who owned a recording studio and was a budding manager. Gribble later went on to manage The Passions and The Mystics, and his recording studio and offices became a hangout for such later notables as Paul Simon and Al Kooper.  The Tune Tones were his first group.  Gribble liked what he heard, christened them The Tune Tones, and took them to Al Silver, of Herald Records, a few floors up in the same building. 

Silver signed them and released two 45s by The Tune Tones:  “Little Sandy” b/w “Please Baby Please,,” (H-524, 1958) and “She’s Right for Me” b/w “Lonesome Soul” (H 539, 1959). Neither were hits, although “Please Baby Please” received solid airplay (it was the b-side) and has become something of a completist fan favorite.After the release of “She’s Right for Me”, Kaplan decided to break up the group and try for a solo career.  He ended up a veterinarian in Long Island and died several years ago.  Levy went to become a rock critic (writing for Changes), Assistant Editor of music industry trade paper Record World, and then held public relations posts at United Artists, A&M and ASCAP.  He later became Assistant Professor of Media Studies at Chapman University in Orange, California, a post he held for 25 years.  He is now a member of Southern California doo-wop group The Expectations.  


Songs :

  
Please Baby Please                              Little Sandy       

  
She's Right For Me                                     Lonesome Soul


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