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Question
#51505. TommyBundok
asks:
What are the names of the two ladies that were Tony Orlando's "Dawn"?
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gtho4
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Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson.
In the fall of 1963, Tony landed a job at April-Blackwood Music and by 1970, had risen to general manager. It was then that Dave Appell and Hank Medress presented a demo to Tony called "Candida". He was impressed enough to forward the song to Bell Records, but they rejected it, saying that the vocal was too weak. Dave and Hank asked Tony to record the demo again and sing the lead himself. Tony told them that his demo making days were behind him, but they persisted and he finally gave in, as long as his name wasn't used. After the recording, Hank attached his daughter's name, "Dawn", and hired two session vocalists, Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson to fill in some background.
The song was released just the way the demo was recorded, and just eight weeks later, had begun to climb the charts. Calls began to come in from promoters wanting to book the group that recorded "Candida", but no actual group existed. Tony had never even met Telma or Joyce and even forgot the name of the song he had so casually recorded.
Fake groups calling themselves, "Dawn", began to spring up and Bell records pleaded with Tony to sign with them, finally convincing him with a cheque for $100,000. That money was eventually spent suing phoney groups over the use of the name.
Tony went back into the studio in New York and the girls added their parts in Los Angeles and churned out an album which also contained their second hit, "Knock Three Times". Released in November, 1970, the tune sold one million copies in it's first month. The trio known as "Dawn" had sold millions of records before they actually met!
 http://www.classicbands.com/dawn.html
Oct 07 04, 6:08 AM
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