Knock Three Times

This song is about a guy who falls in lust with his downstairs neighbor. She doesn't know him, but he obsesses over her and leaves her a note one day with an elaborate plan to pursue a relationship: she is instructed to knock three times on the ceiling if she wants him, and to bang twice on the pipe if not. We don't find out how she responds, but he would probably have better luck if he just talked to her.

There was no "Dawn" when this song was recorded. Two producers, Hank Medress and Dave Appell, recorded the song "Candida" with an artist they were working with named Frankie Paris for Bell Records. Label boss Larry Utell didn't like Paris' vocal, so the producers persuaded their old friend Tony Orlando (then working for the publishing arm of CBS Records) to record it. Orlando, who had hits "Halfway to Paradise" (#39) and "Bless You" (#15) in 1961 as a 16-year-old, had retired from singing but reluctantly recorded the song. When it was released in June 1970, Orlando insisted his name be kept off of it, since it could be a conflict with his employer, do the single was issued as Dawn (there are at least three different stories of whose daughter the group was named after). Orlando didn't think much of it, but "Candida" became a big hit, rising to #3 in October. This convinced him to revive his singing career. Medress and Appell scrambled to record an entire album with Orlando and find a follow-up single. That single was "Knock Three Times," written by "Candida" co-writer Irwin Levine and the lyricist L. Russell "Larry" Brown. Both the album and single were released under the name Dawn, which became Tony Orlando & Dawn when he cut ties with CBS. The song rose to #1 in January 1971.

Backup singers on the Candida album included Toni Wine (who co-wrote the song "Candida"), Jay Siegel (from The Tokens), Robin Grean and Linda November. These were all behind-the-scenes writers and performers; Orlando needed a new group to back him up live and on future recordings. That job went to Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent, who became "Dawn" (the name had a nature connotation; at least three guys involved with the project claimed that it was named after their daughters). The combination worked very well, in part because Hopkins and Vincent were great on camera, as was Orlando. The trio had another #1 hit in 1973 with "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree," and the following year got their own variety show, which ran through 1977. Hopkins landed roles on the TV series Bosom Buddies, Gimme A Break and Family Matters. (For more, check out our interview with Toni Wine.)