As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.
April 3, 1944
Tony Orlando is born Michael
Anthony Orlando Cassavitis.
Born to a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother, he spent his earliest years in Manhattan, New York’s
then-notorious Hell’s Kitchen. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City and later, Hasbrouck Heights in New
Jersey.
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“.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
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