Tony Orlando

Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis (born April 3, 1944), better known as Tony Orlando, is an American show business professional, best known as the lead singer of the group Tony Orlando and Dawn in the early 1970s.

Discovered by producer Don Kirshner, Orlando had songs on the charts in 1961 when he was 16, "Halfway to Paradise" and "Bless You". Orlando then became a producer himself, and at an early age was promoted to a vice-president position at CBS Records, where he was in charge of the April-Blackwood Music division. He sang under the name "Dawn" in the 1970s, and when the songs became hits, he went on tour and the group became "Tony Orlando and Dawn". They had several songs which were major hits including "Candida", "Knock Three Times", and "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree". The group hosted a variety program, "The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show" on CBS from 1974–76, and then broke up in 1978.

Orlando then continued as a solo singer, performing in Las Vegas and Branson, Missouri. Orlando has hosted the New York City portions of the MDA Labor Day Telethon on WWOR-TV since the 1980s but quit in 2011 in response to Jerry Lewis' firing from the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Yellow ribbon

The yellow ribbon is used for various symbolic purposes. It is often worn on one's person or tied around a tree.

History and Etymology

Early Puritan history

The song/poem "She wore a yellow ribbon" has appeared in various forms for at least four centuries. It is based upon the same general theme: A woman of destiny is under some sort of test or trial as she waits for her beloved to return. Will she be true to him? This seems to be the lingering question and the basis for a great unfolding drama.

The song appears to have been brought to America from Europe by English settlers. The origin of the yellow ribbons seems likely to have come from out of the Puritan heritage. It was during the English Civil War that the Puritan Army of English Parliament wore yellow ribbons and yellow sashes onto the battlefield.

"She Wore a Yellow Ribbon"

Yellow is the official color of the armor branch of the U.S. Army, used in insignia, etc., and depicted in Hollywood movies by the yellow neckerchief adorning latter-half 19th century, horse-mounted U.S. Cavalry soldiers. However, a review of the U.S. War Department's Regulations for the Uniform and Dress of the Army of the United States (1872, 1898) reveals that a neckerchief, of any color, was not an item required by dress code. Despite this, neckerchiefs were a popular accessory employed by cavalrymen to cope with the frequently dusty environs. The specific association of the yellow neckerchief with the U.S. Cavalry may have arisen from a work of popular American West artist Frederic Remington—Lieutenant Powhatan H. Clarke, Tenth Cavalry (1888).

Tie A Yellow Ribbon (Dawn album)

Tie a Yellow Ribbon is the third album by American popular music group Dawn featuring Tony Orlando (Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitas, Telma Hopkins & Joyce Vincent Wilson) released in 1973 by Bell Records. The title track reached #1 in both the US and UK charts. In terms of sales, this single was the most successful in the group's career, starting a string of seven consecutive Hot 100 appearances. Another track from this album, “You’re A Lady” by English singer/songwriter Peter Skellern, reached #70 in the US charts. The group changed their name to "Tony Orlando and Dawn" later in 1973

Track listing

Side 1

Side 2

Tony Orlando and Dawn

Tony Orlando and Dawn was an American pop music group that was popular in the 1970s. Their signature hits include "Candida", "Knock Three Times", "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", and "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)".

Early history

Tony Orlando was born Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis on 3 April 1944. After almost a decade of singing and with only three Top 40 hits, two in 1961 and another in 1969 as the lead singer for the studio group Wind, he had not had any further successes. He stopped singing entirely, and by 1970 he was a retired demo singer. He began publishing music for April-Blackwood Music, a division of Columbia Records, instead.

Then Orlando received "Candida," a song that other producers and singers had turned down. Orlando was not able to originally lend his name to the song, as he was working for April-Blackwood, and recording under his own name would be a professional conflict of interest. After an insistence by producer Hank Medress that he dub his voice over the male vocals on the original track, the single was released on Bell Records as being performed by the band "Dawn", to protect his position.

Tie a Yellow Ribbon

Tie a Yellow Ribbon is a 2007 award winning film by Korean-American director and writer, Joy Dietrich.

"I wanted to make a film that gave nuanced portraits of young Asian-American women whose stories are seldom told in mainstream media. The dirty little secret is that Asian-American women have one of the highest rates of depression in the United States. While this film doesn't attempt to explain the reasons why, it does expose the isolating, alienating factors that make the young women feel the way they do -- the greatest among them the lack of acceptance and belonging. TIE A YELLOW RIBBON is ultimately about three young women's search for love and belonging."

It portrays the complex emotions for young adult Asian American women through its main character, Jenny, as a Korean adoptee in America struggling thorough life and difficult relationships. It was filmed and takes place in New York City.

It was aired on PBS television, in the ITVS series, in May 2008.

Awards