Tony Orlando and Dawn

Tony Orlando and Dawn
Telma Hopkins, Tony Orlando and Joyce Vincent Wilson at the premiere of their television show, 1974.
Background information
Also known as Dawn
Dawn featuring Tony Orlando
Origin New York City, New York, United States
Genres Pop
Years active 1970-1977, 1988-1993, 2005, 2015-2016
Labels Bell, Elektra

Tony Orlando and Dawn is an American pop music group that was popular in the 1970s. Their signature hits include "Candida", "Knock Three Times", "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose", and "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)".

Early history

Tony Orlando was born Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis on 3 April 1944.[1] Orlando recorded through the 1960s with only moderate chart success. He had three Top 40 hits, two in 1961 and another in 1969 as the lead singer for the studio group Wind. While recording through the 1960s, he also became a producer and a successful music executive with Columbia Records and Columbia/CBS music.[2][3]

While working as a music executive, Orlando received "Candida," a song other producers and singers had turned down. Originally, Orlando could not lend his name to the song, as he was working for April-Blackwood and recording under his name would be a professional conflict of interest. After producer Hank Medress insisted Orlando dub his voice over the male vocals on the original track, Bell Records released the single as being performed by the band "Dawn" to protect Orlando's position.

The background singers on the track were Cynthia Weil, Linda November, Jay Siegel, and Toni Wine, who co-wrote the song. Phil Margo played drums on the original session, and the arranger was Norman Bergen. After the single hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 (No.1 on the Cashbox Top 100), Orlando wanted to perform again. The ensemble recorded the 1970 album Candida, which included the namesake song and the No. 1 hit song "Knock Three Times".[4]

Bell Records was desperate to have a real-life act to promote Dawn's records. Orlando asked former Motown/Stax backing vocalists Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson, whom he had hired to work as background vocalists while producing Barry Manilow in the late 1960s, to become Dawn.[3] The threesome then went on the road in 1971, on the success of "Candida" and "Knock Three Times". After a tour of Europe, Hopkins and Vincent assumed background vocal duties in the studio, first recording on the late 1971 album Dawn Featuring Tony Orlando. They were joined in the studio by Vincent's sister Pamela Vincent, who sang and arranged the backing vocals. Touring commitments with Aretha Franklin prevented Vincent from appearing with Dawn on tour. The first single with their voices in the background was "Runaway/Happy Together" in 1972.

The group (now billed as 'Dawn featuring Tony Orlando') released another single in 1973, and it became their next No. 1 single — "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ole Oak Tree." In terms of sales, this single was the most successful in the group's career, starting a string of seven consecutive Hot 100 appearances with long titles by the group.[5]

Period of group's variety show

The group's next single, "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose" (from their concept album Dawn's New Ragtime Follies), went to No. 3 on the Hot 100, followed by similarly flavored top 40 hits "Who's In The Strawberry Patch With Sally" (the first single with recording credit "Tony Orlando & Dawn") (No. 27), "Steppin' Out (Gonna Boogie Tonight)" (No.7), and, with some disco influence, Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter's "Look in My Eyes Pretty Woman" (from the trio's 1974 album Prime Time) (No.11), which Mike Kennedy recorded several years before.[6]

CBS gave the group a television variety show (entitled Tony Orlando and Dawn) from the summer of 1974, after The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour ended its run, until December 1976. The show was in the same vein as its predecessor (with sketches featuring sarcastic back-and-forth banter between Orlando, Hopkins and Vincent, similar to the sarcastic dialogue between Sonny and Cher) and became a Top 20 hit.

With a new record label (Elektra), the group continued their string of hit singles during the show's run, hitting the Top 10 on the Hot 100 and adult contemporary charts, including "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)" (a reworking of Jerry Butler's "He Will Break Your Heart") (#1), from the album of the same name, and "Mornin' Beautiful" (#14). In 1975 a remake of the Sam Cooke song "Cupid", from their final original album "To Be With You", became the group's last Top 40 single on the Hot 100.[7] "Sing" reached No. 7 on the Adult Contemporary Chart in 1977. The group went their separate ways later that year and would have only one more single, 1991's "With Ev'ry Yellow Ribbon (That's Why We Tie 'Em)".

On The Carol Burnett Show in 1975, Harvey Korman, Carol Burnett, and Vicki Lawrence did a spoof of Tony Orlando and Dawn, as Tony Tallahassi and Dusk, singing "Wrap Your Jammies Round the Old White Pine".[8] At the end of the number, they were kicked off the stage by the real Tony Orlando and Dawn. Curiously, Lawrence's "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" immediately preceded Dawn's "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" at the pole position of the Hot 100 in April 1973.

Later career

They re-formed in 1988 for a five-week tour that wound up lasting into 1993, with Pamela Vincent finally becoming a visible Dawn member, stepping in whenever Hopkins was fulfilling her acting/television obligations.

Orlando is still a popular appearance performer on tour regularly with the Lefty Brothers and Toni Wine. Hopkins made a very successful acting career for herself in series such as Bosom Buddies, Gimme a Break, Family Matters, Half and Half, and Are We There Yet. The Vincent Sisters continue a prolific career as session singers. A DVD compilation from the variety series was released in 2005 along with the group's catalog of albums on CD. Tony Orlando & Dawn released A Christmas Reunion that same year. Publicity events for those releases marked the first time Hopkins, and both Vincent Sisters appeared onstage together. Toni Wine also participated in those shows. The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2008.

Tony Orlando and Dawn occasionally reunites for television and benefit performances. In 2009, Joyce Vincent joined Scherrie Payne and Lynda Laurence's Former Ladies of the Supremes' group. She continues to tour and perform to audiences all over the world. Tony Orlando, Telma Hopkins, and Joyce Vincent reunited again in 2015 for the sold-out "Tony Orlando and Dawn: To Be with You Again" tour and appeared at Chiller Theatre in Parsippany, NJ.

Discography

Albums

  • Candida (1970)
  • Dawn Featuring Tony Orlando (1971)
  • Tie a Yellow Ribbon (1973)
  • Tuneweaving (1973)
  • Dawn's New Ragtime Follies (1973)
  • Prime Time (1974)
  • Candida & Knock Three Times (1974)
  • Tony Orlando & Dawn II (1974)
  • Golden Ribbons (1974)
  • Greatest Hits (1975)
  • He Don't Love You (Like I Love You) (1975)
  • Skybird (1975)
  • To Be With You (1976)
  • The World of Tony Orlando & Dawn (1976)
  • The Definitive Collection (1998)
  • Christmas Reunion (2005)

Hit singles

DAWN

  • 1970 "Candida" No. 3 US (Gold); CB No. 1; No. 9 UK; No. 8 AC
  • 1971 "Knock Three Times" b/w "Home" No. 1 US (Gold); CB No. 1; No. 1 UK; No. 2 AC
  • 1971 "I Play and Sing" No. 25 US; CB No. 22; No. 15 AC
  • 1971 "Summer Sand" No. 33 US; CB No. 19; No. 9 AC

DAWN FEATURING TONY ORLANDO

  • 1971 "What Are You Doing Sunday" No. 39 US; CB No. 26; No. 3 UK; No. 23 AC
  • 1971 "Juanita (I Didn't Mean to Love You so Good)" Carmen UK release
  • 1972 "Runaway/Happy Together" No. 79 US; CB No. 41
  • 1972 "Vaya con Dios" No. 95 US; CB No. 60; No. 37 AC
  • 1972 "You're a Lady" No. 70 US; CB No. 68
  • 1973 "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" No. 1 US (Gold); CB No. 1; No. 1 UK; No. 1 AC
  • 1973 "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose" No. 3 US (Gold); CB No. 4; No. 12 UK ; No. 1 AC

TONY ORLANDO AND DAWN

  • 1973 "Who's in the Strawberry Patch with Sally" No. 27 US; CB No. 13; No. 37 UK (1974 release); No. 3 AC
  • 1974 "It Only Hurts When I Try to Smile" b/w 'Sweet Summer Days Of My Life" No. 81 US; CB No. 56; No. 36 AC
  • 1974 "Steppin' Out (I'm Gonna Boogie Tonight)" No. 7 US; CB No. 14; No. 4 AC
  • 1974 "Look in My Eyes Pretty Woman" No. 11 US; CB No. 20; No. 6 AC
  • 1975 "Gimme a Good Old Mammy Song"
  • 1975 "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)" b/w "Pick It Up" No. 1 US; CB No. 1; No. 1 AC
  • 1975 "Mornin' Beautiful" b/w "Dance Rosie Dance" No. 14 US; CB No. 15; No. 2 AC
  • 1975 "You're All I Need to Get By" b/w "I Know You Like a Book" No. 34 US; CB No. 38; No. 13 AC
  • 1975 "Skybird" b/w "That's the Way a Wallflower Grows" No. 49 US; CB No. 52; No. 7 AC
  • 1976 "Cupid" b/w "You're Growin' on Me" No. 22 US; CB No. 21; No. 2 AC
  • 1976 "Midnight Love Affair" b/w "Selfish One" CB No. 93; No. 15 AC
  • 1976 "Spanish Harlem Rosita and Me" Stereo/Mono Radio Only White Label Promo
  • 1977 "Sing" b/w "Sweet as Candy" No. 58 US; CB No. 62; No. 7 AC
  • 1977 "You're All I Need to Get By" b/w "You're Growin' On Me" (Dawn Featuring Telma Hopkins & J.V. Wilson)

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hyatt, Wesley (1999). The Billboard Book of No. 1 Adult Contemporary Hits (Billboard Publications), page 127.
  2. ↑ Knopper, Steve. "Tony Orlando still hasn't needed that backup career option, despite his mother's advice". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  3. 1 2 "Knock 3 times if you want Tony Orlando". mercurynews.com. February 16, 2012. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  4. ↑ "Linda November and Artie Schroeck (contains clips of singing)" (audio). Ronnie Allen Show. December 2009. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
  5. ↑ Casey Kasem noted the then-developing trend of Dawn's long song titles on both the 15 September 1973 and 15 December 1973 editions of American Top 40.
  6. ↑ "Look In My Eyes Pretty Woman". Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  7. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 8th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 472.
  8. ↑ "Tony Orlando and Dawn: The Ultimate Collection (R2 Home Video-2006)". Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  1. ↑ "The Billboard Hot 100 - 1963". Billboard. Archived from the original on October 20, 2006. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
  2. ↑ Kowal, Barry. "Billboard (USA) Magazine's (Magazine Chart) Top 100 Singles of 1963", Hits of All Decades. September 20, 2017. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
  3. ↑ [Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits. New York: Billboard Books. p. 138. ISBN 0823076776. Retrieved 20 October 2018.]
  4. ↑ "Top Records of 1963", Billboard, Section II, December 28, 1963. p. 30. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
  5. ↑ Kowal, Barry. Billboard Magazine's (USA) Top 100 Single Recordings of 1963, Hits of All Decades. August 27, 2017. Retrieved October 19, 2018.
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