Take a suave European with savoir faire, add one American from the Bronx with an infectious personality, then gently blend two fine baritone voices, et voila…. You’re in for a treat.
Ralph Young sings with a driving style, equally capable of sounding soft or solid while maintaining a quality of special meaning with lyrics. Tony Sandler displays much the same perfection with more accent on tonal quality; he is equally at home in any of six languages: French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Italian and, of course, English. Add to this sophisticated humor and charm, and the perfect definition of Tony Sandler and Ralph Young is “class.”
When certain things in life are meant to be, fate has a way of stepping in at just the right moment. Fate did just that in Milan, Italy in 1963. American born and raised Ralph Young, was sent to Italy to rehearse for a revue to be presented at the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. There he met Tony Sandler, a native Belgian, who was also hired for the same revue. From the start Tony and Ralph became good friends. With Tony acting as guide, he and Ralph spent all their free time seeing the sights of Western Europe. Ralph later reciprocated when the boys came to Vegas. Meanwhile, as they worked more and more together, they found their voices blending into a rich and unique sound. It was then that they began developing special songs, using Tony’s vast repertoire of European tunes, and Ralph adding the American background coupled with his wit and great sense of humor.
Soon after Tony and Ralph began to prepare an act consisting of their own special material. Again fate stepped in when Phil Silvers overheard Tony and Ralph rehearsing and immediately called Polly Bergen who signed them to appear in her act. During one of the engagements with Polly Bergen at the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles fate stepped in again and the President of Capitol Records signed them.
Their first album sold over a million.