TONY ORLANDO AND DAWN – "Knock Three Times"

I just looked at what was on the charts in general around this time and almost everything in the top 10 while this was #1 is better, including the Rolling Stones and Ringo Starr, at least from the ones I know. I cannot account for the popularity of this at all, I very much doubt if the people who bought the previous single bought this one…

…and yes I did watch their tv show and I’ve never understood this song – if he wants her, why can’t he just say hi or something? Do they all live in a prison?

Second thought–maybe they ARE in prison after all . . .

The subsequent (and wretched) “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” was about getting out of prison. (Even if Americans seem to think it’s about coming home after going off to wars started by the two Georges and thus put them all over the place and not just on trees.)

This must have been simply huge just measuring the impact in terms of skits and parodies thereof. i’m sure the barron knights had a go. i was not even 2 when this was number one but i know the tune rly well. it’s the audience participation opportunites that meant all the light entertainment and working club singers had a definite sing-a-long on their hands.

Best Vic Reeves club singer song ever.

The one touch of historical semi-interest about this record is that it almost certainly represented the last gasp of Italian pop, a la the Crests/Brooklyn Bridge/Jay & the Americans. This had been a fairly vital commercial sub-genre in America during the post-Elvis-in-the Army/pre-Beatles era from 1960-to ’64, with diminsihing returns thereafter. “Knock” fits in most comfortably in this neighborhood. (Although, ironically or not, the two women who were Dawn wouldn’t have been allowed to live in that neighborhood, thanks to the restrictive housing laws still in effect during that earlier period.) Orlando himself got his start in this musical style, with the Goffin/King semi-hit, “Halfway to Paradise” in the early ’60s – later re-made to much better effect by Nick Lowe.

A better example of this style from Orlando was the previous hit, “Candida,” which added a welcome touch of class struggle in its lyrics, courtesy of Toni Wine (who also functioned as “Dawn” in the studio for that recording). She turned up here not so long ago as the female half of the Archies. That record was still diminished by Tony’s unerring gift for being a total dipshit.

This is, I think, the first pop song I truly despised at the time, most likely because both my parents completely loved it, it was total squaresville as far as the kids in my family were concerned, and even a family in-joke of sorts (though I think I was familiar with it somewhat later than 1971, at which point I was too young to hold such opinions). As such, it was obligatory for what seemed like years at weddings and other family-type or church-type gatherings. Don’t specifically recall a *line dance* per se but it’s definitely possible; the only specific action I can think of was the motion of everyone on the dance floor (duh) knocking three times in unison to the chorus (which took even less co-ordination than spelling out Y-M-C-A several yrs later).

Years later, I came across (and agreed with) Chuck Eddy’s description of it in his 2nd book as a precursor to Santa Esmeralda, and that opened the song up for me a little, plus I actually turned into one of those cheesy wedding djs who virtually lives and dies by all-ages crowd pleasers, so I imagine if I had been 20 years older (and a DJ) in the early seventies it would’ve felt like a lifesaver. (Plus the idea of my parents out there on a dancefloor dancing to maraca-inflected pop makes me not just a little wistful 30 + years later.) I’d probably grade it a 6 myself, but I agree with wwolfe that “Candida” is the better record, maybe because its hook is less obvious?

I can’t explain why Bowie would be in the audience except that he was spending a lot of time in Los Angeles at this time (hanging out with Iggy Pop, IIRC) and, oh, maybe they were on the same label or something? I don’t know…

Can’t join in with Erithian’s salute to the terrible spectre of early ’70s BBC light entertainment music TV.

Particularly in terms of Cilla and Lulu, this generally consisted of the hapless “stars” having to sing hoary old show tunes while being untidily thrown around the stage by the Young Generation and then expected to appear in “hilarious” comedy sketches with Frankie Howerd. Even Cliff did the “comedy” stuff.

The alternatives were Val Doonican in his worthy rocking chair and, lest we ever forget, the highest-rated of all these programmes, The Black And White Minstrel Show.

Perhaps it was the American equivalent of Ronnie Barker dressing up as Gary Glitter on The Two Ronnies?

Not strictly correct: please qv. Johnny Maestro’s amazing “I’m Stepping Out Of The Picture.”

… which is even more scandalous than keeping “Brown Sugar” off the No. 1 spot

The ‘comedy’ variety shows, I loved them as a kid.

Way better than the “Shirl Bass” shows that had only songs and no comedy and were very painful to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH4ziD9s1XM

There’s a YouTube link to prove it :))

Have fun my Bowie chums, Mat :))

Tony, the nuisance neighbour, would be looking at a visit from Inspector Knacker if he pulled a stunt like this today. “Hey, girl, what you doing down there?” What’s it got to do with you, you tosser!True, Orlando does offer the girl a get-out clause with “twice on the pipe” but that’s not the issue as pound to a penny this lovesick idiot, like the EU on the Lisbon treaty, would not be prepared to take no for an answer anyway. There are all sorts of danger alarms ringing here. This is clearly an extreme case of a bloke not getting out enough and singing a merry little song about it was just wrong.

Sirens, gunshots, death: http://musicsoundsbetterwithtwo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/popcorn-double-feature-r-dean-taylor.html Muchas gracias for reading, everybody!

Oooooh, I like that. Interesting how there are TWO P Diddy entries in there! I don’t know if I’ve ever heard Neil Sedaka’s Bad Blood, a 1975 US #1 that did nought in Britain. The Dawn entry likewise did nothing here – He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You) was a weedy cover Jerry Butler’s He Will Break Your Heart with a different, clunkier title. I’m mystified as to how it got to #1 in America. TV tie-in or something?

(First time poster–wish I discovered this blog five years ago!)

31: Yes, they had a weekly TV show on the premier American TV network at the time, CBS. A year later (Wiki says ’75, but I distinctly remember it being early ’76), they remade Sam Cooke’s “Cupid”, their last Top 40 hit.

( Love the book, by the way–just bought the UK edition; the American one looked all chopped up.)

32: Don’t remember who produced it, but it was released on Elton John’s Rocket imprint (through MCA) here in the USA, and that’s Elton on the record with him.

And yes, I am fairly certain I had both 45’s. The Sex Pistols were a long two years away…

Here in the US, Orlando managed to parlay this into a variety show. It probably only lasted a year or two, but as a kid, I felt like television was dominated by him and Donny & Marie Osmond.