Biography
Toni Wine earned her primary reputation among the many accomplished pop tunesmiths who worked out of the storied Brill Building, yet she also issued recordings under her own name. A native New Yorker, she displayed exceptional talent early on by pursuing classical piano studies at the Juilliard School of Music and later took a position at Screen Gems Publishing, where her initial songwriting partners included Gerry Goffin, Howie Greenfield, and Steve Venet. The Cookies’ “Only to Other People” marked the first Wine composition to appear on record, though her songwriting reached a new level during a three-year partnership with Carole Bayer that produced the Mindbenders’ “A Groovy Kind of Love,” which reached the top of the U.S. pop charts in March 1965. Around the same period she attempted a solo career, cutting several singles for Colpix that attracted scant attention. In 1969 she supplied vocals, alongside Ron Dante, Ellie Greenwich, and Andy Kim, for the Archies’ blockbuster “Sugar, Sugar,” even though the group existed only as a cartoon creation. The following year, accounts indicate she rejoined fellow Brill Building veteran Tony Orlando to sing on her own composition “Candida,” released under the name Dawn and soon ascending the charts; certain reports also locate her among the vocalists on Orlando’s subsequent hit “Knock Three Times.” Following a string of bubblegum-oriented solo releases, Wine wed producer Chips Moman in the early 1970s and moved to Memphis, where she issued recordings on Atco and Monument while maintaining an active schedule as a songwriter and session singer.
Albums
