... AND THEN CAME DAWN

In 1970, a friend of Orlando’s at Bell Records was having trouble with a song he had written called “Candida.” The music sounded great, but the lead singer didn’t quite match the tone they were looking for.

Orlando accepted $3,000 to sing lead on the song which was released without Orlando’s name on the single or his photo on the sleeve. Instead, a photo of another group was used for the sleeve cover and, on that week’s nationally-broadcast radio show “American Top 40,” host Casey Kasem explained that Dawn was an eight-member group from Philadelphia and the lead singer was named Frankie Spinelli.

“Candida” peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100, which called for a follow-up release. That turned out to be “Knock Three Times,” which went all the way to No. 1

By this time, Bell Records was eager to get “Dawn” out on the road. It hired Orlando, who left his post at CBS, and paired him with experienced background singers Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson.

After a successful tour of Europe, the trio began singing on their own records, starting with material released in 1972. The group was renamed “Dawn featuring Tony Orlando” and, later, “Tony Orlando and Dawn.”

The trio hosted their own weekly variety show on CBS for three seasons starting in 1974. Tony Orlando and Dawn split up in 1977. went on to a successful TV sitcom acting career, co-starring in “Bosom Buddies,” “Gimme a Break!,” “Family Matters,” and “Getting By,” still performs in Las Vegas and in Branson, Missouri, and hosts an oldies radio show for WABC in New York. He’s an activist for U.S. military veterans.

continued working as a background singer and spent eight years performing with her sister, Pamela Vincent, in a group called Former Ladies of the Supremes.