By Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.com
Editor’s Note: This is an expanded version of Prime’s interview with Tony Orlando, which includes parts of the interview that were edited from the print version for space.
Tony Orlando couldn’t recall if he and Dawn – his longtime backup vocalists Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson – had played The Big E in their heyday, but he imagined they probably had.
“I remember how important state fairs were to us [when we were starting out],” Orlando said. “I can’t imagine we didn’t work the Big E before.”
The iconic singer was at home in Branson, MO, for a rest stop between appearances when Prime reached him about his upcoming appearance at this year’s Big E, and the question seemed a natural one to the entertainer who has been crisscrossing the country – and the world – in concert for the past 58 years.
Though the fair itself was a foggy memory, Orlando said he was thrilled to be performing in the area again, where he’s always enjoyed a warm welcome from fans.
“Mohegan Sun [in Uncasville, CT] has been a home for us since it was a tent,” Orlando joked. “We were at the arena with a Christmas Reunion Show with Thelma and Joyce two years ago [and] 10,000 people showed up.”
He’s hoping some of those fans will be able to make the trip to see his show at the Big E on Sept. 17 and 18, where he’ll be performing on the Court of Honor stage at 3 and 8 p.m. both days.
“Fifty-eight days is usually how long you are in this business, it’s been 58 years. I’m grateful to God and the people who support me,” the former music exec, who himself spent his early years picking talent and signing acts, admitted.
From ‘Paradise ‘ to ‘Yellow Ribbon’
To say it’s been a whirlwind career for Orlando would be an understatement.
From a 15-year old singing Doo Wop with his buddies on a New York City rooftop and “dreaming about being in show business” to a hit singer with “Half Way to Paradise” and “Bless You” at 16, Orlando’s star took off like a rocket.
On the first part of the ascent, he became one of the youngest general managers at Columbia Records – overseeing April Blackwood Music at age 22.
“For four years I was fortunate to work under [Clive Davis] and Neil Anderson, “ Orlando explained. “And that four years was very rewarding for me. I represented major artists – I signed Barry Manilow and got him signed to his first label and produced his first [record]. I represented Blood, Sweat & Tears, the Yardbirds, Taj Mahal – an incredible lineup of artists – and acquired artists and songwriters like Barry and Chip Taylor – who wrote “wild Thing” and “Angel in the Morning.
“A lot of great young writers and groups of the 1970s were a part of my life on the other side of the desk, and that provided me with insight into the business and why people get signed and why people get turned away,” Orlando noted.
Those heady experiences, he noted, were all “just before ‘Candida” and “Knock Three Times’.”
With those two songs, Orlando made a second ascent to stardom. Initially persuaded to sing “Candida” on a demo cut for friends Hank Medress and Dave Appell from Bell Records, that song, released in July of 1970 under the group name, “Dawn,” propelled Orlando’s singing career up the charts to number one again. He followed up that smash hit with “Knock Three Times” – released in 1971, this time with Hopkins and Wilson as backup vocalists – and then the release of his trademark song, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Ole Oak Tree” in 1973.
“The first time I ever sang [Yellow Ribbon live] was to welcome home POWs from Vietnam with Bob Hope at the Cotton Bowl [in 1973],” Orlando recalled, adding that event drew 72,000 people to welcome home 500 prisoners of war who had been held in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
He was so moved by the experience Orlando said later that same year, used his salary from a concert at New York City’s Copacabana to fly eight of the POWs he’d met to New York to see the city. Forty years later, he still has a reunion with some of those Cotton Bowl returnees. “Many have become close friends, and brothers,” he said.
Orlando said he felt “Yellow Ribbon,” which subsequently became an anthem for returning veterans from multiple conflicts in the years that followed, was responsible for not only launching his wide-ranging career but also for sparking his dedication to veterans, which has become his life’s work. Over the years he’s helped raise money for veteran’s causes though countless USO and benefit performances, and the annual free veterans extravaganza he founded in Branson in 1993, which has raised over $200 million. The Branson event, Orlando added, actually preceded the nationally recognized Wounded Warrior project by 10 years.
“Every performer waits for a signature song and [“Yellow Ribbon”] certainly was the catalyst for me,” he noted “ [The song] has been an unbelievable symbol of hope to our servicemen.”
Just one little song...
Once again the Cotton Bowl opportunity with “Yellow Ribbon” – like the demo cut for “Candida” – came out of the blue, Orlando said. He recalled answering the phone one day and “I hear Bob’s voice … he says ‘The opening line of ‘Tie A Yellow Ribbon’ – I’m coming home, I’ve done my time – is the answer to the prayer of every mother of a POW’ – and that was the beginning, that was even before the TV show.
“Tie A Yellow Ribbon” also became the theme song for a weekly TV variety show featuring Orlando, Hopkins and Wilson, which ran on CBS from 1974 to ’76.
“Here I was on prime time at 28,” Orlando mused, adding that he, Hopkins and Wilson were the first “multi-racial group to have a TV program on prime time” at that point in TV history.
And today when he does a live performance, like the upcoming one at the Big E, Orlando said “Ninety-nine percent of the time” he opens with his signature song, “Yellow Ribbon.”
“I learned that from Sammy Davis Jr.,” Orlando said. “You can always open with your closer [and] I’ve always kept that advice.
“It makes people say ‘where is he going next?’” he joked.
This show’s for you
Paying homage to Davis, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and his personal friend, Jerry Lewis, Orlando said he tries to carry on the tradition of putting the audience first – as the greats he had the privilege of working with in his early career – showed him by example.
“It was a romance with these guys and I learned that from them at a very early age, to hold high the goal of making people happy, to feel an emotion, to bring back an emotion with as song, to bring back a memory [for them],” he said. “Guys like Jerry and Sammy and Dean Martin and Sinatra, they looked at the stage as a place for love, they looked at it as a place to give.
“They wanted to make the audience happy, make them smile, make them laugh,” Orlando remembered from his days working with his idols. “It was a drive to get out there every time and make people forget about their problems, make sure they didn’t worry about the rent, or a divorce, or painful separation _ that when they were on sage the took them on a ride and gave them joy. That’s the relationship [I learned] between an audience and a performer … people think it’s about us or the reputation or the fame, but it’s about them.”
After he opens his show with “Yellow Ribbon,” Orlando said everything else in is usually “off the cuff” and inspired by the audience in front of him at the time.
“My band has been with me 22 years, I can wink at them and they know where we’re going,” he explained. “It’s not just Tony and a band that backs him, it’s a complete show. My brother David [has played] keyboards for 25 years, the Cole brothers have been with me for 21 years, I’ve been very blessed with a show that has been deep in the band.”
Grateful for the legacy
A consummate performer who has sold more than 200 million records and has five gold records, three platinum records, and Broadway and film role credits to his name – in addition to his landmark TV show – Orlando humbly credits “Yellow Ribbon” and the song’s authors – Erwin Lavine and Russell Brown – with his success and staying power.
‘I’ve been blessed to be able to do something for my country by helping veterans [because of ‘Yellow Ribbon’],” Orlando said. “Now my career is worth something, not just a gold record on the wall, or fame, but real substance. It’s been 45 years dedicated to helping veterans.
“I was kind-of the mailman who delivered the letter,” he said of “Yellow Ribbon’s” impact. “I didn’t write the letter, [but] I hope to continue to put it in everyone’s mailbox so that we should never forget our veterans.”
Sharing more memories
As the interview continued, Orlando spoke lovingly about his and longtime friendship with with Jerry Lewis, with whom he co-hosted the annual Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy Telethon for 20 years. He said Lewis’ work for this cause is often underrated.
“If there wasn’t a Muscular Dystrophy Association there wouldn’t be the research in DNA that has made so much difference in medicine,” he said. “People don’t give Jerry the credit; he certainly provided the funds [for the Association].”
He said he was proud to say it was Lewis – along side his mother and father – who stood beside him when he got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1990.
Orlando also said he was honored to be part of the final sendoff for his friend.
“I was personally asked by his wife to host his memorial and funeral,” Orlando said. “I was proud, but it was sad and difficult.”
Waxing philosophical about how far a kid who never went past the 8th grade has gotten in life, Orlando said he feels truly blessed by the career he has.
“I’ve been doing this since I was 16 years old, I’ve never done or know any other business; this is it.
“I’ve got an Asian tour coming up [early next year],” the 74-year-old continued. “I’m looking forward to that [playing] Singapore and New Zealand.
“I get crazy if I’m not working,” he said.
