Kalin Twins
The Kalin Twins were an American pop music duo that enjoyed success in the late 1950s.
Band history
The Kalin Twins consisted of the twins Harold and Herbert Kalin. They sang together during their childhood and after graduating from Port Jervis High School in 1952, they wanted to start a musical career together. But they had to postpone this for four years, during which Harold was drafted as a radio operator by the US Air Force .
In 1956 they recorded a demo single and through the songwriter Clint Ballard they were able to apply successfully to the Decca record label. A first single was unsuccessful, but for their second release they discovered the song When by Paul Evans and Jack Reardon. The song became a worldwide hit and was number 1 in the UK for five weeks . In the USA it was number 1 on the R&B charts and came in the pop charts as in Germany under the top 5. When reached gold status in the USA and sold over two million copies worldwide.
Internationally, it should remain her only success. In the USA, the follow-up single Forget Me Not came in at number 12. In 1959, they entered the US charts twice, but after that their hit times were over. The twins recorded records until 1962 and then withdrew into professional life with the advent of the Beatles and Stones.
From 1977 they appeared again together or in threes with their younger brother Jack, then as Kalin Brothers , after a nightclub owner friend had hired them for his new River Boat Club . They also tried again with single releases. They had their last big appearance in 1989 at the 30th stage anniversary of Cliff Richard , who had started his career back then in the opening act of their England tour.
Harold Kalin died in a car accident in August 2005 and Herbert of a heart attack just eleven months later.
When
The song When , which made the Kalin Twins a hit, is one of the oldie classics that have been successfully covered over the years. In 1974 John Kincade brought his version of the song into the German Top 10 and three years later Showaddywaddy recorded the song and reached number 9 in Germany and even number 3 in the UK.
A German version under the title Wenn was also the first hit of the James Brothers alias Peter Kraus and Jörg Maria Berg in 1958 .
Members
- Harold 'Hal' Kalin (born February 16, 1934 in Port Jervis, New York - † August 23, 2005 in Waldorf, Maryland)
- Herbert 'Herbie' Kalin (born February 16, 1934 in Port Jervis, New York - † July 21, 2006)
Discography
|
Chart positions Explanation of the data |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Singles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Singles
- Beggar of Love / The Spider and the Fly (Demo Single, 1956)
- Jumpin 'Jack / Walkin' to School (1957)
- When (1958)
- Forget Me Not (1958)
- Oh! My Goodness (1959)
- It's Only the Beginning (1959)
- Sweet Sugar Lips (1959)
- Sometimes It Comes, Sometimes It Goes (1966)
- Silver Seagull (1978)
- American Eagle (1979)
Web links
- Kalin Twins homepage ( memento from March 24, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) with real player version of When (English)
- Kalin Twins at Allmusic (English)
- Biography at Lycos