Tony Orlando

Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis (born April 3, 1944), known professionally as Tony Orlando, is an American pop and rock singer, songwriter, and music executive whose career spans nearly seven decades. He is best known for his work as part of Tony Orlando and Dawn.

In 1993, he opened the Tony Orlando Yellow Ribbon Music Theatre in Branson, Missouri. He ended his act there in 2013 and has continued to perform many live shows as a headliner, mostly in Las Vegas. When his song "Candida" became an international No. 1 song, he began to use his name in the group becoming "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando" and then "Tony Orlando and Dawn". The group had 19 other top 40 tracks, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", the top-selling hit of 1973 and one of the biggest selling singles of all time. The group also had a hit variety program, The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS from 1974 to 1976. They broke up in 1977 and he has since performed as Tony Orlando. In 1985, he portrayed Tony Castillo in The Cosby Show on Season 1 Episode 23 titled "Mr. Quite".

Orlando retired from performing on the road, in concert in 2024, after 64 years. He shifted his focus to movies, Broadway, streaming new product, and writing another book.

Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis was born on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. During his early years, he lived in Chelsea, Manhattan, on West 21st Street. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey and Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.

Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to write songs in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.