Unbelievably, Tony Orlando & Dawn had 2 huge hits and sold millions of records before the members of the group even got together!  Their out-of-the-park smashes, “Candida” and “Knock Three Times,” were recorded separately, with Tony recording in New York and the background singers recording their part in Los Angeles.  When the group finally melded into a trio (Tony, Telma Hopkins, and Joyce Vincent-Wilson), they went on to become one of the biggest selling pop groups of the 70s.  Their popular 3-year television variety show enhanced their improbable success.

Tony Orlando was born in the Hell’s Kitchen section of New York and worked his way out of poverty with the help of pop impresario, Don Kirshner.  Tony, 16, was hired by Kirshner to be a demo singer for Carole King.  One of the songs he sang as a demo, “Halfway to Paradise,” was so good that it was released as a single and made young Tony a teen star in 1961.  The song peaked at #39 and his follow-up “Bless You” reached #15.  Both songs were written by Carole King.   But despite appearances on “American Bandstand” and live gigs, his star faded after two hits.  His third single, “Happy Times” failed to catch on.

Eventually in 1963 Orlando found his way to April-Blackwood Music, the publishing division of Columbia Records.  No longer a recording artist, he went behind the scenes working his way to head of the department by 1970.   But as fate would have it, another path presented itself.   Co-producers Dave Appell and Hank Medress (formerly of the Tokens) asked Tony to record a lead vocal for a song that they were having trouble selling.  They felt the original lead vocal on the demo was too weak.  But they remembered Tony from his singing days and thought his voice would be a good match for the song.

Initially, Tony did not want to do it.  First of all, they were pitching the song to Bell Records and Tony feared that his employers at Columbia Records would disapprove of his involvement.   But he was finally persuaded when they agreed to not use his name on the recording.  Instead they christened the group with the generic name, Dawn, (the name of Hank Medress’ daughter).  Tony laid down the lead vocals to the already recorded background, and the song “Candida” was the result.  Bell Records was known for their commercially potent records and this was no exception.  Top 40 radio stations embraced it immediately and the undeniably pleasant pop tune climbed easily to a million-selling #3 on the Billboard Chart in 1970.    

The song was too big to not issue a follow-up.  So Tony was again persuaded to go into the studio and put the lead vocals on another song.  Meanwhile the background voices were recorded elsewhere and Tony recorded his part alone.  The hook on the song proved irresistible.  The addictive “Knock Three Times” was released at the end of 1970 and was even bigger than its predecessor.   The distinctive “bomp-bomp-bomp on the ceiling if you want me and twice on the pipes clink-clink” had listeners by the millions banging along to the beat. By January 1971, it had knocked off George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” to become the #1 record and remained in the top spot for 3 weeks.  The U.K. made the song #1 in May and eventually the record sold 7 million copies worldwide.  It was quite obvious “Dawn” was no one-hit wonder.