Ralph Young, at 90; singer in Sandler & Young duo

LOS ANGELES - Ralph Young, a former big-band singer who became half of Sandler & Young, the internationally popular singing duo, has died. He was 90.

Mr. Young died Friday at his home in Palm Springs, Calif., after a brief illness, said his wife, Arlene.

After becoming a duo in 1965, the Belgium-born Sandler and the New York-born Mr. Young recorded more than 20 albums; headlined in showrooms, concert halls, and nightclubs; and frequently appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show," "The Tonight Show," and other top television variety and talk shows.

From London in 1969, they hosted "Kraft Music Hall Presents Sandler & Young," the summer replacement for "The Kraft Music Hall" variety show on NBC.

"They were glorious years," Sandler said in Minneapolis on Monday. He was flying to California for Mr. Young's funeral.

"They were extremely successful years," Sandler said. "We did every possible TV show; we did it all. There were ups and downs, like in everything, but Ralph was my friend and a great singer, and I have the greatest admiration for him."

As performers, Sandler & Young were known for what a Los Angeles Times writer in 1969 called "European sophistication plus down-to-earth American comedy."

"Ralph was very humorous; he was a very funny cat, actually," said Sandler, 75, and "still very much in the business.

"There was a lot of humor in Sandler & Young. I mostly played the straight man, and he played . . . a bit of a buffoon type. And me being European was supposed to be the more suave of the pair, and Ralph was more the typical, brash American."

But it was, of course, the blending of their baritone voices that most attracted audiences.

Born in the Bronx borough of New York on July 1, 1918, Mr. Young dropped out of high school to help his family. After a stint as a messenger boy for Warner Bros., he launched his singing career in small restaurants and nightclubs.

Sandler and Mr. Young met in 1963, when they were both sent to Milan to rehearse for a revue to be presented at the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas. They did the Dunes show for a year, then Sandler joined Mr. Young in New York, where they began performing as a duo in the Catskills.

Then they got a job performing in the lounge at the Sahara in Las Vegas, which led to their first break as a team.

Mr. Young semiretired in 1983 at age 65, but he continued to perform occasionally until the early 1990s.

Mr. Young's first wife, Muriel, died in 1984.

In addition to Arlene, his wife of 22 years, Mr. Young leaves three sons, Neil, Ron, and Guy Goldstein; three daughters, Arleen, Lauren Goldstein, and Rachel Diaz; and eight granddaughters.