Tony Orlando deep dive: He’s here for five shows
Tony Orlando helped define the ‘70s: A great-looking guy with a terrific voice, a charismatic personality and hit records that you couldn’t help but sing along with when you heard them on an AM radio. “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” is one of the biggestselling singles in history, while “Knock Three Times,” “Candida” and “He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You)” are no slouches, either.
Orlando recorded with Joyce Vincent Wilson and Telma Hopkins as Tony Orlando and Dawn, and they achieved the ultimate ‘70s status symbol: their own CBS variety series. Later for Orlando came Broadway, acting gigs and lots of music: He’s never stopped singing or touring. There also was a bestselling memoir, 2002’s “Halfway to Paradise,” that honestly dealt with his cocaine abuse in the ‘70s and his depression after the death of pal Freddie Prinze.
A Dawn-free Orlando will perform several concerts in the Valley this week. The singer, who has homes in Las Vegas and Branson, Missouri, called to discuss his busy life and career. At 74, he’s still enthusiastic, outgoing and charming.
Q: I was looking at your calendar and your schedule seems very full.
A: I do 145 dates a year. I’ve been on the road since Nov. 2. And come 2020, there will be a musical based on my life, “Rooftop Dreams.” So between writing the score and writing the script and doing all these dates, it’s very full.
Q: You must still have the same hunger for music.
A: I have a hunger for what I’ve known all my life. It’s just part of my being. I don’t think about it as a hunger. It’s what I do for a living, and what I have done since I was 16 years old.
Q: Some artists seem to slow down. A: I look at it this way. Paul McCartney is two years older than me. As long as I’m two years younger than the Beatles, I can’t be old! Rod Stewart is my age and he’s still working Vegas. Mick Jag-
ger is still touring. This business keeps you young!
Q: You mentioned writing your musical. How did that come about?
A: I was approached to do a story on my life by a very good friend who’s known me for 30 years. He knows my story: I was an executive and vice-president working for Clive Davis. We had the TV show; we were the first multiracial group to have a prime-time variety show. My sister, who was handicapped, was the piston to my engine. She was my inspiration. There’s my relationship with Freddie Prinze, my relationship with veterans — it’s a very lush life.
Q: It’s not a jukebox musical?
A: I did not want to do a jukebox musical. I played in “Barnum” on Broadway in 1981 and I went back to do a lead in “Smokey Joe’s Cafe.” I understand the traditions of Broadway and the parameters. I don’t want to do just all the hits we had with the girls. I want to write a story. If you didn’t know who I was, you’d still be intrigued by the story. This isn’t just the Tony Orlando story; it’s the story of a young kid, a dreamer from the streets of New York.
Q: You had a huge hit with “He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You),” and your albums had great versions of songs like “Grandma’s Hands,” “I Count the Tears” and “Bring It On Home to Me.” Do you wish you were known more for your R&B side?
A: I did at one time, but I don’t now. My show incorporates R&B and pop and all our hits. When I first recorded “Halfway to Paradise” (in 1961), Donny Kirshner (the producer) wanted it as close to R&B as possible. I was borrowing from Ben E. King, because I did the demos for the Drifters. So if you think of “Candida,” it had a Ben E. King-Drifters sound. Tenement R&B, we used to call it. “Knock Three Times” was very Drifters-like.
Now, with “Tie a Yellow Ribbon,” I didn’t think it was going to be a hit. I didn’t have an ear for that song, because my heart, my soul, is that of an R&B person. The producer kept pushing, and I said, “Fine, I’ll do it, but give the girls lead vocals on the album. I want Telma and Joyce to find themselves as lead singers.”
Q: How are Dawn?
A: We just did a Christmas tour together. They’re like my sisters.
Q: I remember seeing the Tony Orlando figure at the Movieland Wax Museum as a kid. Do you have it?
A: I think they melted it! We (debuted) the wax figures on the television show, and I hated the way they had my hair. I gave myself a haircut and cut the mustache the way I wanted it. But I think they melted it and it became Julio Iglesias.
Q: When’s the last time you didn’t have a mustache?
A: I shaved it when I did the TV movie “300 Miles for Stephanie” (in 1981). I grew my mustache based on the Beatles in the “Sgt. Pepper” period and Mark Spitz. I grew it and shaped it to look like both George Harrison’s mustache and Mark Spitz’s mustache. When I shaved it off for the movie, my lip looked like it was four-feet long to me.
Q: You didn’t have the mustache when you played Jose Ferrer in “Rosie: The Rosemary Clooney Story” (1982), either.
A: That’s right! Rosie picked me for that part. I thought, ‘You want me to do Jose Ferrer with his beautiful Shakespearean voice? Are you kidding?’ But she said, ‘Shave your mustache and you will be Joe.’ And when I look back on pictures, I see Joe. And I did get a call from Joe, and he complimented me on my performance.
Q: You mentioned Freddie Prinze. Do you see Freddie Prinze Jr?
A: No, I haven’t seen him at all since he was 1 year old. I talked to his mom, Kathy, and she did things the right way. Freddie Prinze Jr. has his own life. He’s a great man, a good man, a good human that Kathy raised by herself. She moved to Albuquerque to keep him away from the stuff that went on in town in the ‘70s, and she raised a very, very wonderful man.
Q: You talk about Hollywood in the ‘70s, and you wrote about cocaine and the drinking in your book. Is Hollywood worse now or better?
A: I think it’s crazier now, if you want to know the truth. We reflected whatever was going on in the country ... But you know what was great? Performers never put other performers down back then. Entertainers always tried to help the other guy. The bigger the entertainer, the more gracious and the more kind they were. When I worked with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis or Jackie Gleason, they would never say anything bad about another performer. Saying something nasty about another performer? That would never happen in the ‘70s. Q: That’s really nice.
A: It was a prime time. When Freddie died, I called Lucille Ball and asked her to come to the funeral. She knew Freddie, but not really personally. But I never forget that she came with a 100-degree fever. She sat next to me, coughing, with a handkerchief and a fever. And it was cold; it was January (of 1977) that Freddie died. That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about. They were very caring people to young people starting out.
Q: How do today’s musicians compare to the ’70s?
A: Look at what Lady Gaga has just accomplished. A tremendous acting performance, then look at some of the incredible videos she’s done. Kids today can sing, they can dance, they understand the camera, they write. I think artists today are more eclectic and capable than ever.