Aldon Music was a New York-based music publishing company, founded by Don Kirshner

Don Kirshner

Don Kirshner , known as "The Man With the Golden Ear", was an American song publisher and rock producer who is best known for managing songwriting talent as well as successful pop groups, such as The Monkees, Kansas and The Archies.-Early life:Don Kirshner was born to Gilbert Kirshner, a tailor,...

 and Al Nevins

Al Nevins

Al Nevins, born Albert Tepper , was a renowned musician, producer, arranger, guitarist and violinist. He was also member of a pop trio called the Three Suns and is considered one of the major forces behind the evolution of the 1950s music into the early 1960s pop/rock music.-The Three Suns:Al...

 in 1958. Aldon is regarded as having played a significant role in shaping the so-called "Brill Building Sound

Brill Building

The Brill Building is an office building located at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and further uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood...

" in the late 1950s and 1960s.

Nevins was a music industry veteran with "money, reputation, experience and connections". He had been a member of a popular instrumental trio The Three Suns

The Three Suns

The Three Suns was an American instrumental pop group, popular in the 1940s and 1950s.The group was formed in 1939 by Al Nevins and Morty Nevins and Artie Dunn , . Their first hit record was "Twilight Time", which was written by the band along with Buck Ram. "Twilight Time" sold over four million...

 for over twenty years and was also the co-writer of their 1944 hit "Twilight Time", which sold over three million copies. At the time Aldon was founded, Nevins had recently been forced to leave the group due to heart trouble.

Kirshner, who was many years younger than Nevins, had recently achieved some success in partnership with singer-songwriter Bobby Darin

Bobby Darin

Bobby Darin , born Walden Robert Cassotto, was an American singer, actor and musician.Darin performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock, jazz, folk and country...

, although they did not work together for long. Seeking to break into publishing, Kirshner approached two major songwriting teams, Doc Pomus

Doc Pomus

Jerome Solon Felder, better known as Doc Pomus , was a twentieth-century American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lyricist of many rock and roll hits. Pomus was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the category of non-performer in 1992. He was also inducted into...

 and Mort Shuman

Mort Shuman

Mort Shuman was an American singer, pianist and songwriter, best known as co-writer of many 1960s rock and roll hits, including "Viva Las Vegas"...

 and then Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller before convincing Nevins to become his partner.

Aldon enjoyed enormous success in the late 1950s and early 1960s with scores of hits written by its contract songwriters, such as Neil Sedaka

Neil Sedaka

Neil Sedaka is an American pop/rock singer, pianist, and composer. His career has spanned nearly 55 years, during which time he has sold millions of records as an artist and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collaborating mostly with lyricists Howard...

, Howard Greenfield

Howard Greenfield

Howard Greenfield was an American lyricist and songwriter, who for several years in the 1960s worked out of the famous Brill Building...

, Carole King

Carole King

Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...

, Gerry Goffin

Gerry Goffin

Gerry Goffin is an American lyricist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 with former songwriting partner and first wife, Carole King. he has co-written six Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers.-Career:Goffin enlisted with the Marine Corps Reserve after graduating from...

, Barry Mann

Barry Mann

Barry Mann is an American songwriter, and part of a successful songwriting partnership with his wife, Cynthia Weil.-Career:...

, Cynthia Weil

Cynthia Weil

Cynthia Weil is a prominent American songwriter. She is famous for having written many songs together with her husband Barry Mann....

 and Jack Keller

Jack Keller (songwriter)

Jack Keller A legend in his own right, Jack Keller wrote hit songs in every genre of music over a period of nearly 40 years with success in New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville....

.

Aldon established Kirshner as a major music publisher and was the springboard for even greater success. Aldon Music also owned a record company, Dimension Records

Dimension Records

Dimension Records was a record label founded in 1962 in New York City by Don Kirshner and Al Nevins, owners of Aldon Music. It concentrated on the girl group sound and showcased songs by Goffin and King. Their composition "The Loco-Motion", sung by Little Eva, gave it its biggest hit...

. Kirshner and Nevins sold the company to Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

 for a substantial sum in 1963, leading to subsequent successes with The Monkees

The Monkees

The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...

 and The Archies

The Archies

The Archies are a garage band founded by Archie Andrews, Reggie Mantle, and Jughead Jones, a group of adolescent fictional characters of the Archie universe, in the context of the animated TV series, The Archie Show...

.