Toni Wine
by David Smay

Listen to that voice soar, turning a single line into an unforgettable pop epiphany: “I’m gonna make your life so sweet.” Can you imagine a music scene where a child prodigy can wander away from her classical piano studies at Juilliard, stroll into 1650 Broadway and start selling hit songs? That was New York in the early sixties, which produced a seemingly endless stream of Nice Jewish Girl Pop Geniuses. That’s the story of Toni Wine, “the female demo singer of the sixties,” hit songwriter, Queen of Bubblegum.

As a teenager, Toni fell in with Don Kirshner’s Aldon Music and with Phil Spector. She formed a partnership with Carol Bayer to write “Groovy Kind of Love,” which became an international smash for the Mindbenders. Toni contributed to the tag end of the Girl Group and Girl Singer era, co-writing “You Came, You Saw, You Conquered” for the Ronettes, “Off and Running” (Lesley Gore), “Now That You’re My Baby” (Dusty Springfield), “Only to Other People” (the Cookies), and a handful of singles under her own name, like "A Girl Is Not A Girl". She gave Phil Spector one of his last hits of the sixties, co-writing “Black Pearl” for Sonny Charles.

In the late sixties, Don Kirshner recruited Toni for the Archies. To the distress of pop fans ever after, Toni’s tenure with The Archies was sadly brief. She appears on a few tracks on Everything’s Archie (most importantly, of course, on “Sugar, Sugar”). But she’s all over the Jingle Jangle album, swapping leads with Ron on the title track, swooping out from the back-up vocals, sweetening the harmonies, tossing off the “hey hey hey” on “Nursery Rhyme.”

Toni left the Archies in a monetary dispute after the worldwide success of “Sugar, Sugar.” At the time, Toni had more impressive writing credentials than anybody associated with the project excepting Jeff Barry. Despite this, Toni was frozen out of participation as a writer/ producer. Being a sharp cookie and a longtime veteran of the scene, it must’ve seemed like a waste of her talents to continue with the Archies when she had no chance to receive royalties on their hits. So Toni didn’t sing on the Archies’ singles “Who’s Your Baby” or “Together We Two” – Donna Marie was brought in to replace her.

Toni then hooked up with Jeff Barry’s ex-wife and ex-partner, Ellie Greenwich. They recorded a demo for “Candida” with a lead vocal by a washed up teen idol turned A&R man, Tony Orlando. (Most accounts have the demo itself released as the single, meaning Toni & Ellie were the original Dawn.) Bell rewarded her by putting out a project titled Dusk (get it?) with Toni singing lead, but it didn’t hit.

After that, Toni married legendary Memphis soul producer, Chips Moman. Chips had just moved from Memphis to Atlanta and became the favorite producer of the nascent Outlaw Country movement of the ‘70s. Suddenly, Toni’s credits as a backup singer take on a Country Music Hall of Fame flavor, as she worked with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and sang on Townes Van Zandt’s Flyin’ Shoes.

As with Jackie DeShannon, it's somewhat puzzling that Toni's talent didn't translate into stardom, but she seems content with her legacy and staying behind the scenes. Toni never did like to tour, and now she can settle back in Nashville with Chips and do what she does best, write songs and sing like a dream.