An Unlikely Group

I mentioned before how Tony Orlando and Dawn were an unlikely musical group. Well here is the reason why. You see Mr. Orlando started out to be a teen idol in the early 60’s. He had two hits on his own that made the top 40. However, by the 70’s he was just working as a studio singer. Producers from Bell records came to him one day to ask if he would sing on one of their records. The song they had was recorded by a group called Dawn but the record company didn’t like the lead vocals. Mr. Orlando agreed and recorded the song Candida. He thought that would be the last he would hear of the song. Radio stations loved it and gave it heavy rotation. It wasn’t long before it was a hit and reached #3 on the Billboard charts. Bell asked Tony Orlando and Dawn to record another song. The song the recorded was Knock Three Times. It went to #1 for 3 weeks on the charts. Bell Records wanted a group to tour but they were only studio singers and fake groups calling themselves Dawn were touring the USA and England. Dawn had two hits on the charts and the group members had not even met yet. Mr. Orlando lived in New York and Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson lived in California. Mr. Orlando kept calling Miss. Hopkins to find out what he could do to get the two girls to tour with him. Neither one of them wanted to tour and Miss Wilson was about to get married. Finally to just to get rid of Mr. Orlando she told him that she and Miss Wilson had always dreamed of a first class trip to Europe. She said they would do it if they could get that. She thought that was the last time she would hear from him. He called her bluff. The next time he called it was to tell her that he had booked a tour of Europe and it was first class all the way. Telma had to call Joyce and tell her she had to postpone the wedding because they were going to tour Europe. Before the 70’s were over the group had 2 more #1 singles with Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree and He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You) and their own television series. To me this is one of the most unlikely success stories I have heard. Now if someone would read something I put on this blog and produce or publish it that would be a wonderful success story too.

P.S. I just found this out before this article went to post. This is how Tony Orlando and Dawn got their own TV show. After Knock Three Times was a hit in 1971 they had a hard time getting another one. Then in 1973, just as they were thinking of breaking up, their producers asked them to record a song that everyone thought would be a hit. Everyone but Tony that is. However, it was a song he just could not get out of his head. He said he found himself singing it around the house. So he gave in and Dawn recorded Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree. Tony was wrong the song was a smash hit and went to #1 on the charts for 4 weeks. The song was nominated for a Grammy and Dawn preformed it live. Watching the show was Fred Silverman of ABC. They were only on for about 3 minutes but he liked what he saw. He got some tapes from their manager of TV shows they were on in England and then went to see them in concert. After that he signed them up for a 4 week summer series. The rest is broadcasting history. The song itself has never died. It is the second most covered song of the rock and roll era. Yesterday by Paul McCartney is the most covered song of that era. Every time someone comes home from prison, war, etc. You know that song is playing somewhere.