Tony Orlando was born Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis on April 3, 1944. 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
April/Blackwood music. 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. On the
American Top 40 radio episode for the week ending October 3, 1970, host
Casey Kasem stated that the lead singer of Dawn was Frankie Spinelli; obviously this alias was used to further obscure Tony Orlando's true identity as the lead singer on "Candida". A few weeks later on the American Top 40 episode for the week ending October 31, 1970, Casey Kasem stated that four guys make up Dawn: Frank, Ricky, Jim, and Dave. 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". Kasem identified Dawn as an eight-member group from
Philadelphia, on the American Top 40 radio episode for the week ending January 23, 1971, far from the truth about the musicians on the record, then repeated the Philadelphia misidentification on the episode for the week ending May 8, 1971. 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. On
The Carol Burnett Show in 1975,
Harvey Korman,
Carol Burnett, and
Vicki Lawrence performed a spoof of Tony Orlando and Dawn, as Tony Tallahassee and Dusk, singing "Wrap Your Jammies Round the Old White Pine". At the end of the number, they were kicked off the stage by the real Tony Orlando and Dawn. Earlier, Lawrence's "
The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" had immediately preceded Dawn's "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" at the top position of the Hot 100 in April 1973. == Period of group's variety show ==