Dawn was singing for the shy and timid man on "Knock Three Times."
The studio group took this song written by L. Russell Brown and Irwin Levine and made every male petrified of ever approaching a woman feel comfortable about the fact they weren't alone.
Of course, the only "shy" thing about "Knock Three Times" was the identity of the group. When the act's first hit, "Candida" came out in the summer of 1970, it was Casey Kasem who tried to make heads or tails of the group on AT40, saying Dawn was "a studio group was from Philadelphia."
Well that wasn't all true. The studio group was actually from New York City, brought together by Hank Medress, a member of the group The Tokens, who scored a No. 1 hit in 1961 with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." By now, Medress was a producer at Bell Records and he had gotten a copy of "Candida," written by session writer-singer Toni Wine and Levine, but the singers that kept coming into the session weren't up to snuff for Medress. He disliked just about every one of them.
So Medress found and old buddy who was once a teen idol in the early 1960s, but had weened his way out of music to working for the publishing arm of Columbia Records, April-Beachwood Music. That man was Tony Orlando, a hit maker with such classics as "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." By 1970, Orlando was 26 years old and content to working in publishing to help support a wife and a young son.
Medress asked Orlando to record this song called "Candida," because, it was found later, Orlando could sound a little more "ethnic" on the vocal than anyone else who came in to record the song (Orlando was part Greek and part Puerto Rican). Orlando had an itch to go back into the studio to record something, but working at Columbia Records and recording for Bell Records would have been a conflict of interest. However, knowing Orlando had the itch to record, Medress made a deal -- he'd be anonymous on the record and his vocal would be slightly dubbed so no one would know who was singing. During an off day, Orlando recorded "Candida" in front of backing vocalists that included Wine and Jay Siegel, another former member of the Tokens.
Getting the confidence that Orlando's name would not be put on the record, Medress named the act "Dawn" and four studio musicians -- none of which were Orlando -- found their way onto the cover of the 45 rpm single sleeve.
"Candida" climbed as high as No. 3 in this country, but was No. 1 in half a dozen countries to become a worldwide smash.
Something else happened, too -- Orlando caught the fever. He wanted to record more. So in September 1970, Orlando was back in the studio again, this time to record a song similar to "Candida." This time around, Wine, Siegel, Robin Grean and Linda November recorded the backing vocals behind Orlando. The song "Knock Three Times" is about a shy man who has a thing for a woman on the floor below him in their tenement and leaves a note for her. On the note, he simply asks her to knock three times on the ceiling if she wants to be with him and twice on the pipe "if the answer is no."
The single debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 21, 1970, at No. 90. A week later, it zoomed up 25 notches to No. 65 and the week after that, December 5, 1970, "Knock Three Times" landed in the Top 40 at No. 33 after a gaudy 32-notch climb.
By the next week, December 12, it was in the Top 20 at No. 20. One week later, the song rocketed into the Top 10 up 14 notches to No. 6.
From there, "Knock Three Times" had gone to No. 4, then No. 3 and then No. 2 by January 9, 1971. It was inevitable that the song would be a No. 1 smash, but had to wait another week as George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" finished out its fourth straight week at the top.
And so on January 23, 1971, "Knock Three Times" made the final move from No. 2 to get to No. 1 and spend three straight weeks at the top of the Hot 100. "Knock Three Times" would spend an impressive 11 weeks in the Top 10 and would spend 16 weeks total in the Top 40. "Knock Three Times" would finish as the No. 10 song of the year, according to Billboard.
By the spring of 1971, Orlando was comfortable being up front with his employer and come clean that he was recording for a rival company. He eventually told Columbia what he was doing and that he resigned his post with the publishing company. And the timing could not have been more perfect because music critics and music fans were demanding to know who the heck "Dawn" was. And with two Top 3 hits, Bell Records wanted to send a touring act on the road to promote the hits and the album the studio group had just recorded.
So with Orlando in the fold, the next task was to hire backing vocalists. He knew two young ladies who worked at both Motown and Stax Records. Joyce Vincent-Wilson and Telma Hopkins were happy to join Orlando on tour in the summer of 1971. It wasn't until 1972's "Runaway/Happy Together" that Orlando, Wilson and Hopkins recorded a song together.
And the legend grew for Dawn, which then became Dawn featuring Tony Orlando and ultimately, Tony Orlando & Dawn. The trio would score 14 Top 40 hits and two more No. 1 hits -- "Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round The Old Oak Tree" in 1973 and "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)" in 1975. They had their own variety show in the mid-1970s and Orlando had all the fame any human could have and more.
But it all changed on the morning of January 29, 1977, when Orlando's closest friend and Puerto Rican soul mate, Freddie Prinze, the star of the TV show Chico And The Man, committed suicide at the age of 22 years old. It devastated Orlando, who didn't completely know about the bouts of depression his best friend was going through. The grief ate through Orlando, but as a professional he continued on. Then on July 22, 1977 during a show with Hopkins and Wilson in Massachusetts, Orlando inexplicably walked off the stage and didn't return. His friend's suicide, coupled with the recent passing of his sister Rhonda at the age of 21 from cerebral palsy had gotten to him.
Tony Orlando and Dawn was over.
Or so many thought they were over.
In 1988, Orlando, Wilson and Hopkins returned to do a tour. Orlando, now 43, was healthy again and in the right frame of mind. The trio (Wilson's sister Pamela filling in when Hopkins had to do acting work) toured on and off for five years until finally calling it over on their own terms in 1993.
Orlando continues to be front and center as a singer and most of the time, he has a show that he performs in his new home in Branson, Mo. He also continues to go on tour where he can and he'll be touring again in the summer of 2016.
At 71 years old, he's enjoying his life more than ever before. He's no longer in the shadows like he was when he asked to be under secrecy when recording for Madress and Bell Records in 1970.
In other words, he's not that shy kid wanting to get a girl's attention like in the song that gave him his first No. 1 hit in 1971.
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