Ivy Three

The Ivy Three Biography by Bruce Eder A trio consisting of Artie Kaye (nee Berkowitz), Charlie Cane (nee Koppelman), and Don Rubin, the Ivy Three were formed at Adelphi University in Garden City, Long Island at the very end of the 1950s, when the three undergraduates started singing together. They were signed to Shell Records in New York, a small independent outfit co-founded by Lou Stallman and Sid Jacobson, a pair of songwriters, and Charles Koppelman helped them finish a song the two were working on called "Yogi," which became the trio's first single. "Yogi" got all the way to number eight on the national charts in the fall of 1960, but nothing else by the trio ever cut did remotely that well, and they'd broken up within a year. Koppelman and Rubin later formed a management company, Koppelman-Rubin Productions, that handled the likes of the Critters, Tim Hardin, and Gary Lewis & the Playboys, enjoying considerable pop success in the mid-'60s. Additionally, the Critters were instrumental in securing the early success of Kama Sutra Records, as well as serving as a vehicle for songwriters Peter Anders and Vince Poncia, two Phil Spector alumni ("Do I Love You," etc.) who were formerly of the vocal group the Videls.