The Trade Winds was an American pop group formed in
Providence,
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...
. The group's members were singer-songwriter and record producer Peter Anders (né Peter Andreoli) (April 28, 1941 – March 24, 2016)
and
Vini Poncia
Vincent "Vini" Poncia Jr. (born April 29, 1942) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer.
Life and career The 1960s
In the 1960s, Poncia formed a songwriting team with Peter Anders (née Peter Andreoli). An album of songs co-writt ...
, who previously had a hit single (with a third member, Norman Marzano) under the name "The Videls" with a song titled "Mr. Lonely", which hit #73 on the U.S.
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in 1960.
After a few further single releases, The Videls folded, and Anders and Poncia began writing tunes with
Phil Spector
Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...
for groups such as
the Ronettes
The Ronettes were an American girl group from Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City. The group consisted of lead singer Veronica Bennett (later known as Ronnie Spector), her older sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. ...
and
the Crystals
The Crystals are an American vocal group that originated in New York City. Considered one of the defining acts of the girl group era in the first half of the 1960s, their 1961–1964 chart hits – including "There's No Other (Like My Baby)", " ...
.
The Innocence
''Amra Ekta Cinema Banabo'' (; also given the English title ''The Innocence'' in promotional materials) is a 2019 black and white Bangladeshi Bengali language fictional-feature film written and directed by Ashraf Shishir and produced by Impres ...
at Allmusic.com Recording under the name "The Trade Winds" in 1965, they released several singles and scored two more U.S. hits, "New York's a Lonely Town" (#32, 1965) and the psychedelic-tinged "Mind Excursion" (#51, 1966), along with two other songs that
bubbled under the U.S. charts, "The Girl From Greenwich Village" at number 129, and "Catch Me in the Meadow" at number 132. In 1966 they changed their name to "The Innocence", recorded a full-length eponymous album, and had two further hit singles, "There's Got to Be a Word!" (U.S. #34, 1966) and "
Mairzy Doats
“Mairzy Doats” is a novelty song written and composed in 1943 by Milton Drake, Al Hoffman, and Jerry Livingston. It contains lyrics that make no sense as written, but are near homophones of meaningful phrases. The song's title, for example, i ...
" (U.S. #75, 1967). Following the LP release the duo released another album under the name
Anders & Poncia
The Trade Winds was an American pop group formed in Providence, Rhode Island. The group's members were singer-songwriter and record producer Peter Anders (né Peter Andreoli) (April 28, 1941 – March 24, 2016) and Vini Poncia, who previously had ...
on
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
in 1969, and shortly after broke up.
Poncia later went on to produce material for artists such as
Ringo Starr,
Melissa Manchester
Melissa Manchester (born February 15, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Since the 1970s, her songs have been carried by adult contemporary radio stations. She has also appeared on television, in films, and on stage.
Early l ...
, and
Kiss
A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...
.
The group was mentioned in the ''
Mad Men
''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its f ...
'' Season 5 episode "
Tea Leaves
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...
" where Harry accidentally signed them instead of
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
for a
Heinz commercial.
AV Club
/ref>
Anders died at Kent Hospital in Warwick, Rhode Island
Warwick ( or ) is a city in Kent County, Rhode Island, the third largest city in the state with a population of 82,823 at the 2020 census. It is located approximately south of downtown Providence, Rhode Island, southwest of Boston, Massachu ...
, on March 24, 2016, at age 74.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trade Winds, The
Musical groups from Rhode Island
Kama Sutra Records artists