While his 60+ yr profession as a live performance performer will wrap up on March twenty second on the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut (with a number of different performances main as much as it), he’s not retiring solely – as he’ll proceed to host his fashionable radio present, Saturday Nights with Tony Orlando.
Orlando spoke with AllMusic just a little over one month earlier than what will likely be his last live performance, and was up for discussing such hits as “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” and “Knock Three Times,” a well-known shut pal who died far too younger, and the way he bought concerned in radio.
What made you resolve to launch a farewell tour presently?
Orlando: “Well, after 64 years…I instructed my spouse, ‘I can nonetheless hit the ball. I simply can’t run the bases.’ And principally what meaning is the entire issues that go on aside from being on stage as of late I feel is why Elton John has retired, Kenny Loggins has retired, Oak Ridge Boys has retired, Bill Medley has retired.”
“I feel what it’s – for me, anyway – is touring immediately, you sit in an airport, delays for 5 hours. You miss your gig, you need to come two days earlier, the price of flying, the price of lodge rooms. It’s simply so loopy. All that type of stuff provides as much as, ‘Who wants this?’ It’s nuts and it is tiring. I’m 79 – I’ll be 80 years outdated in April. I’m on this enterprise 64 years, and I believed, ‘You know what? God has blessed me with 64 years. I’d have been proud of 64 days. But 64 years in present enterprise? Leave whilst you’re nonetheless promoting out. Leave whilst you nonetheless have your satisfaction…and make day-after-day Saturday.’ That’s principally it.”
What can followers anticipate on the upcoming last reveals?
Orlando: “1,000% of my coronary heart – to indicate my thanks, to all of the help they’ve given me for 64 unbelievable years. This has been a dream journey, man. I began after I was 16 years outdated. My first hit was with Carole King [and Gerry Goffin] – it was her first hit, as effectively – known as ‘Halfway to Paradise.’ And then Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil – 4 legendary writers, with Carole and Gerry – they gained Academy Awards, they’re within the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And we began out as youngsters in 1961 – with Don Kirshner. It’s been an unimaginable, unbelievable dream come true.”
“I by no means noticed highschool – I’m an eighth grader. My palate has tasted the meals of 36 nations. I’ve been in a position to work for 9 presidents, I’ve had my very own tv community present on CBS within the ’70s. A present – by the way in which – we had been the primary multiracial group to ever have a primetime tv present. 36 million folks watching us each Wednesday. Millions of data we have offered. So, all of the desires got here true.”
“And to have the ability to say goodbye at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut – which is my favourite venue. I’m ending there as a result of it is my household. I’ve been working that lodge since they began in 1998. So, it is going to be fantastic. 12,000-seats, enjoyable, filled with performers who’ve been my buddies for a few years – from Priscilla Presley to Frankie Valli who’re coming, to David Pack of Ambrosia. I’m wanting ahead to an amazing celebration of a blessed life – each by God and by the general public.”
Which songs are your favourite to carry out?
Orlando: “I haven’t got a favourite tune to carry out. My ‘tune’ is your complete present. I get pleasure from doing your complete present – there isn’t any one tune that’s my favourite.”
What had been your preliminary impressions of “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree,” and did you’ve got any thought it will change into so profitable?
Orlando: “No, it is like each tune you go into the studio. Y’know, the women and I – Tony Orlando and Dawn – have 5 #1 data. They had been ‘Candida,’ ‘Knock Three Times,’ ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree,’ ‘Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose,’ and ‘He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You).’ Each a kind of periods, you do not stroll in, ‘Oh, I’m slicing successful.’ You stroll in going, ‘I need to make an amazing file. I need to make an amazing product.’ And that takes care of itself. I went in pondering, ‘Wherever it takes me, it takes me.'”
“That file, ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon,’ I first carried out it to welcome dwelling our POW’s from Vietnam on the Cotton Bowl with Bob Hope in 1973. And then, welcomed dwelling our hostages from Iran after 444 days – the yellow ribbon was tied across the area shuttle to welcome them dwelling. Amazing. And then, it was the theme or the emblem that led Desert Storm troops in that battle – they got here dwelling to yellow ribbons. Then in Iraq and Afghanistan, the identical. Then, as this battle is preceded in Israel, proper now in Jerusalem they’re carrying yellow ribbons in honor and hoping in prayer that these hostages come dwelling. And that is all as a result of I walked right into a studio on a wet afternoon in New York City. Who knew?”
“If you go to Hong Kong proper now, they’re preventing for his or her democracy – their theme tune is ‘Yellow Ribbon’ and their brand is a yellow ribbon. If you go to Singapore, the yellow ribbon is used as a welcoming dwelling for prisoners who’re coming dwelling. So, anyone who has served in navy, that tune grew to become a freedom anthem, a welcoming dwelling anthem – reached means past successful file. Did I ever have the thought that may occur?”
“And you understand what? It’s allowed me to work for our navy – due to that tune popping out in 1973 and welcoming dwelling our POW’s – I made a decision to dedicate my life as a performer to elevating cash for veterans. And due to ‘Yellow Ribbon,’ they inform me it is effectively over $100 million that has been raised on behalf of our veterans since 1973. That reaches a degree that goes past any expectation.”
And what about “Knock Three Times”?
Orlando: “‘Knock Three Times’ is the most important promoting file I’ve ever had. ‘Yellow Ribbon’ in its preliminary launch did two million data. ‘Knock Three Times’ in its preliminary launch did 4 million data. So, ‘Knock Three Times’ has been an incredible hit for me. One that every era has picked up as their very own. For occasion, it was in a film known as Now and Then – younger women had that film as a part of their ‘backpack,’ so to talk. That tune was written by the identical writers who wrote ‘Yellow Ribbon’ – L. Russell Brown and Irwin Levine. They wrote our hits. What Burt Bacharach was wish to Dionne Warwick, they had been to us. I owe them a lot. Because they had been the songwriters.”
In 1973, you started headlining in Vegas. What do you recall about that period in Vegas, and the way does it evaluate to immediately?
Orlando: “When I got here to Vegas, the headliners had been the Rat Pack. So, they had been my buddies – I grew to become buddies with Frank, Sammy, and Jerry. I hosted the Jerry Lewis Telethon for 33 years. So, that was Vegas. They had been Vegas. Don Rickles was Vegas. I discovered myself in that crowd. Amazing time in Vegas it was. Because Vegas, I did not notice within the late ’60s and early ’70s it was booming – to change into the Vegas that you understand now.”
“The Vegas that you understand now could be one thing that can’t be described. It’s 100 instances extra thrilling – extra buildings, extra reveals. Like, when Steve Wynn introduced in Cirque du Soleil, that was an $80 million present. An $80 million expense to place that present on. You did not have somebody like Criss Angel – who sells out each present, and has for the final 13 years. An unbelievable profession he is had there.”
“You had the Super Bowl this week. You have a look at the stadium, Allegiant Stadium…after I was right here, there was no sports activities city. There was sports activities betting, however there was no sports activities city. Now, you’ve got the Raiders, the Super Bowl, the NHL Team the Knights, and now you’ve got the Athletics coming in from Oakland as a baseball staff.”
“So, Vegas has change into – I imagine – the sports activities capital of the world now. Why? If the Super Bowl involves a city anyplace within the nation, it is like, ‘Whoa! We’ve bought the Super Bowl!’ When the Super Bowl involves Vegas, it equals out. The pleasure is each for the town and for that occasion. It’s one of many few instances you will ever see the Super Bowl meet a metropolis that is as well-known and conscious of the world as Vegas. So, Vegas is on a unique platform immediately than it was after I began.”
“Remember, after I began, the Hilton Hotel – the place I labored – was the place Elvis labored. I used to be there for ten years. And in that lodge now, I look again on it and I feel, ‘Viva Las Vegas’ actually rebirthed his profession. In that constructing.’ And I had the privilege of working the identical stage as him. So, from Sinatra to Presley to the Super Bowl, you possibly can’t ask for higher.”
Who had been a few of your favourite friends on the Tony Orlando and Dawn Show?
Orlando: “It’s fascinating, as a result of we had all people on that present you possibly can probably identify. But those that reoccurred that had been my favorites, was a comic named Ruth Buzzi. She was a part of a present known as Laugh-In, and he or she was a hysterical, genius, Chaplin-like comic. She was wonderful. Also, she was the one that you simply noticed on The Dean Martin Roast. She was considered one of my favourite folks.”
“And then Phyllis Diller – who additionally was a comic again then. If you look on YouTube, there’s a fantastic scene together with her, the place I got here to welcome her and I grabbed her in my arm, and her wig bought caught in my cuff hyperlink. When I pulled my arm away…off got here the wig! And poor Phyllis was left with nothing. She was actually bald. I used to be so embarrassed – you possibly can hear me say, ‘I’ll lower this out. I promise.’ And she says, ‘No! You cannot lower this out! This is the funniest snigger we’ll ever get!’ Those are the sorts of individuals I had the pleasure of working with.”
“And then in fact, Jerry Lewis – who I idolized as a child rising up. And grew to become buddies with him due to his look on my present in 1976. And then he gave me the consideration of co-hosting the Telethon with him and Sammy Davis Jr. for 30 years.”
What do you attribute to the recognition of TV selection reveals within the ’70s?
Orlando: “Remember, there have been solely three networks. There was no Cable. There was CBS, ABC, and NBC. That was it. So, it was a pure time for what I’d name extra of a vaudevillian kind of comedy and sketches – that was utilized to my present, The Carol Burnett Show, and The Sonny and Cher Show. We all had these comparable type of comedy sketches. Of course, so did Saturday Night Live, which got here in on the similar time – they had been simply being born.”
“Today, tv would not have that type of selection – apart from Saturday Night Live. And what took its place are reveals like The Masked Singer, American Idol, The Voice. That’s the range reveals immediately. So music and comedy had been a pure match for prime time tv. I’m very proud that I used to be a part of a time in tv that was a trailblazing time. Because when Telma [Hopkins], Joyce [Vincent], and I – Tony Orlando and Dawn – went on the air, we had been the primary and solely multiracial singing group to ever personal a main time tv present. And by the way in which – it is nonetheless that technique to at the present time.”
You had been an in depth pal of Freddie Prinze. What was he actually like?
Orlando: “Freddie was essentially the most unimaginable comedic expertise to come back upon this enterprise. And he solely was within the enterprise for 2 years. I’m having fun with my sixty fourth yr. And he was my ‘youthful brother.’ He was from Washington Heights in New York, I used to be from Chelsea in New York. He was from a Hungarian/Puerto Rican household, I used to be from a Greek/Puerto Rican household. We each understood the identical dinners that we had, we understood the identical meals we had. And I misplaced younger brother – he was ten years youthful than me.”
“But think about this – this can be a younger man that had two years on this enterprise, and so they nonetheless bear in mind him. Just such as you did. Freddie was means forward of his time. Freddie – on the age of 20/21 – hosted The Tonight Show. That says all of it. When we did The Dean Martin Roast collectively, we had been like two brothers on that present – in awe of the truth that we had been there with all these nice stars. We had been simply younger youngsters. Freddie was a comedic genius – he actually was. An awesome loss to indicate enterprise and to the general public.”
You additionally host Saturday Nights with Tony Orlando. How do you want working in radio?
Orlando: “I’ve all the time needed to work in radio. It’s humorous, in all of the years on this enterprise, you spend a whole lot of time on radio. And I bear in mind one yr I used to be requested to come back on WABC or WCBS with Bruce Morrow, and do 5 hours – changing him for an evening. And I believed, ‘Man, this is able to be nice to do.’ Never pondering that sometime I’d be doing it.”
“What occurred was I bought a name from the house owners of WABC radio through the pandemic, and so they mentioned, ‘Would you wish to a two-hour radio present for me?’ John Catsimatidis who owns the station is an outdated pal of mine. And I mentioned, ‘I’ll do no matter you need.’ Never pondering it will transcend that point. I believed I used to be doing him a favor – to be trustworthy with you.”
“Then I began doing the present, and I began creating theme reveals – I began creating reveals that had been roughly documentaries about my buddies who I’ve had on as friends. Like Clive Davis – I did 4 hours with Clive. It was actually fascinating, introspective looking for how Clive discovered and nurtured all these nice stars at Columbia Records. And I had an opportunity to work with him as his vp earlier than I had hits as a performer. I ran the music division for Clive – I signed Barry Manilow and represented James Taylor and Blood, Sweat & Tears. So, I had an amazing run with him.”
“But radio permits me to do two issues. Play nice music, play music from all genres, from all many years, even now. And additionally, interview a few of these nice performers that I’ve developed friendships with. So, it has been a joyful trip. And I hope it continues. I’m having fun with that. I do it from dwelling with my brother David, and it is change into a giant hit – so I’m very joyful. I get pleasure from radio very a lot. To use an outdated expression, it is ‘the theater of the thoughts.’ So, you create imaginative and prescient for folks. You create ‘seems to be’ of their heads, hopefully. And the response will let you know whether or not you succeeded or not. It’s nice.”
You lately had Paul Stanley of Kiss on as a visitor. Are you buddies with Paul?
Orlando: “I’m. My supervisor, Susan Maneo, was a vp of Casablanca Records. And this was earlier than she managed me – she additionally managed Donna Summer‘s profession. And I met Paul with Gene Simmons within the ’70s – once they began. And then he grew to become very shut buddies to a younger man that is sort of a son to me – and that is Criss Angel. So, Criss Angel and Paul are very tight, very shut. We bought collectively at some point at his birthday celebration, and Paul mentioned, ‘When am I doing all of your radio present? What are you ready for?!’ He’s man. And I really like his soul album, Soul Station: Now and Then. When I performed cuts from that, the response from the viewers was unbelievable.”
“The similar factor with Bruce Springsteen and his album, Only the Strong Survive – one other album very like Paul’s album. Paying tribute to the individuals who impressed them. I used to be simply inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, and Clive and Dionne Warwick had me are available. So, Bruce comes as much as me singing my first hit file, ‘Halfway to Paradise.’ I mentioned, ‘Hey! You know this tune?’ He goes, ‘Tony, come on. We grew up on that tune. 1961. ‘Halfway to Paradise’.’ It thrilled my soul that he and all these guys know that tune.”
Future plans?
Orlando: “I need to flex my writing muscle. It’s a part of the artistic juices that I’ve, that I’ve not paid a lot consideration to – though I wrote a whole lot of the sketches on the TV present together with the comedy writers. I’ve written a few films, scripts for movie. I had fun making That’s My Boy with Adam Sandler. I had fun making that film with Adam.”
“So, I’d wish to unfold my wings extra within the writing aspect of my expertise – which I’ve not paid as a lot consideration to, as a result of it actually evokes me and excites me after I end a chunk of product. Whether or not it’s a e book, a novel, a play, a Broadway present, or a tune. And that is the place I need to spend my time.”
For extra data, go to Tony’s official website.