(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
Tony Orlando & Dawn - "Knock Three Times"
Hit Number 1: January 23, 1971
Stay at Number 1: 3 Weeks
I'm going to get this out of the way real quick. I don't understand the hatred for Tony Orlando's music. The cool thing to do today seems to be making fun of his music, and even though sometimes the lyrics of his songs are easy to make fun of, a lot of artists in the early 1970s wrote songs that had stupid lyrics. The Jackson 5 are one of the most immortal and celebrated bands of all time, and they had all kinds of stupid lyrics in their songs. I don't understand why Orlando is the one everyone decides to make fun of. With that being said, Orlando's first of 3 #1 hits, "Knock Three Times", possesses lyrics that are about as stupid as they come. Some of those people that make fun of his music are justified when it comes to this one.
"Knock Three Times" is not the first successful single that Orlando released, but it's still a part of his earliest era. The song appears on the album Candida, with the album's title song peaking at #3 on the Hot 100, becoming Orlando's biggest hit at that time. ("Candida" is an 8) Eventually he would go on to form Tony Orlando & Dawn, but the Candia album was recorded and released before that happened, so "Knock Three Times" is credited as being by "Dawn" instead. Dawn was the name given to Orlando and two other female session musician singers, Linda November and Toni Wine, who performed on the Archies' "Sugar, Sugar". Orlando was, at the time, working as a producer/singer for another record label when he happened to hear another artist recording "Knock Three Times". He thought if he could produce it the way he had envisioned it, the song could be a major hit. Due to not wanting to be caught by the company he worked for, he recorded the song with November and Wine and called this temporary band "Dawn." Of course, the song blew up, and it hit #1 in different countries around the globe. I can't seem to find if Orlando got into any trouble because of that, but it was probably a good thing the song hit the way it did otherwise Tony Orlando & Dawn would probably never exist.
Even though the song was a success, it doesn't take a genius to realize that the song is pretty stupid. It's about a guy who is in love with a woman who lives in the apartment under his, even though he's clearly never met her. Instead of talking to her in person like most normal people would do, he hatches up a plan to where she will "knock three times" on the ceiling if she loves him, or bang twice on the pipe if she doesn't. There's also a childish pipe-banging sound effect that the song probably could've lived without. There's also some troubling sounding lyrics such as "Read how many times I saw you/How in my silence I adored you" and "I can hear your music playing/I can feel your body swaying." At times it's childish and even creepy.
Despite that, "Knock Three Times" is a song that has never bothered or offended me. The lyrics are cringe-worthy, but you can get away with cringe lyrics when you have quality music production, which is something the song has. I like the lively brass intro, and the gleaming strings solo when the song is changing key. It's also littered with hooks all over the place, and I'll be damned if the song isn't at least a little catchy to most people. Orlando, Wine and November also sing the song with such a serious tone, that even though it really shouldn't work, it does. I'm not paying very close attention to what the hell Orlando is saying, I'm just enjoying the monster hooks and the high-quality music production.
In a way, Orlando needed "Knock Three Times" and "Knock Three Times" needed Orlando. The song might have been recorded by other artists, but it never achieved hit status until Orlando gave it a shot. And once Orlando made his version, it turned him into a star. He would go on to form Tony Orlando & Dawn, and under that name he will appear in this blog again.
GRADE: 7/10
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