What he meant was that the Carpenters were inspired to release their version of the song as a single only after Lynn Anderson had a #2 country hit with it. Prior to that they hadn't realized its commercial potential.
From what I've read, Richard noticed the reaction the song got while touring the album and felt it probably should be a single but wasn't pleased with his original production. He cut a new version while Anderson's was climbing the Country charts. It's funny because I prefer the album version over the single.
Not surprising at all. The surprising thing - I thought - is that they kept doing it to the middle of the decade. Also, it wasn't artsy or affected, as it became with some other groups - Tony Orlando and Dawn were aiming for pure chart pop. Good point. I think of the peak of that trend as being late '60s to maybe 1971 - The Mamas And The Papas, Melanie, that sorta thing - but you were still getting traces of it thru the middle of the '70s. Midler was a big (later) proponent. The Pointer Sisters too, come to think of it. I loved - and still adore - "Sweet City Woman".
Much prefer this over "Candida," for sure. But in any case, this was the second Bell single (after The Partridge Family's lone chart-topper) to get the CBS Pitman pressing and typesetting treatment: Followed by The 5th Dimension's "One Less Bell To Answer" which got no higher than #2:
Richard Carpenter co-wrote that one, the Carpenters' were first (on A Song For You), then when Ms. Anderson's rendition made the C&W charts, Richard tinkered with the mix and the vocals a tad smidgen and they had themselves another #1 (but we're getting waaaaay ahead of ourselves for the umpteen-zillionth time, now) . . .
I don't think Ms. Hopkins or Joyce Vincent (Wilson) were part of Dawn when these first two came out - they didn't join until later '71 (partly to squelch any ersatz "Dawns" who were touring . . . I presume one of which had legendary British session singer Tony Burrows ). I.I.N.M., those backing Mr. Orlando on "Candida" and "Knock . . . " would have been Toni Wine and Linda November (from what I'd read, anyway).
Just a little more regarding the My Sweet Lord/He's So Fine thing... I recently saw The Chiffons in concert. The lead singer, Judy Craig Mann is 71 years old and sounds fantastic. The others in the group are not the original singers, but they put on a great show. Judy is a very elegant and classy lady who really connects with the audience, and I would recommend seeing them if they are in your area. I looked her up and found this article, wherein it is mentioned that they opened for The Beatles when they first came to America.. The Chiffons were on the bill for the Beatles' first full concert in America. "We opened for them for the show they did at the Washington Coliseum (in 1964), but we did not get to meet them that night," Craig recalls. "It was so chaotic that night. Everyone would do their show and then get out. "We didn't get to meet them until London (in 1965). We got to meet them and the Rolling Stones and the different groups that were in England at the time." So I think it is kind of hard to argue that the songs of The Chiffons were unknown by The Beatles. Unless they weren't paying attention. Chiffons singer Judy Craig: One fine voice The Chiffons disbanded for a long time and they took on regular jobs like the rest of the world. I am sure that they did not get any particular benefit from the lawsuit as they were not the songwriters. I still find it sad that the singers that made these songs hits and gave so much pleasure to people did not benefit the way that record labels and songwriters did. There was money to be made but not by groups such as The Chiffons. And that to me is a pity. "When we first started, it was a hassle. We drove everywhere, practically, or rode buses. Of course, they didn't pay well back then, either. We had fun, but it was not like you made a lot of money. And it was tiring. Today, you're taken care of. Now, people treat you better."
I read through the entire My Sweet Lord discussion to see if someone would post this one! Always thought it was a clever idea for them to cover this.
Knock Three Times Having a discussion about something like this song is precisely the kind of thing that worried me when this thread crept towards the seventies. Tony Orlando and Dawn do the kind of music that not only does nothing for me, but actively frustrates me in its ability to become a hit while other superior stuff at the same time did not. Bubblegum music, *real* bubble gum (now there's a contradiction in terms, but whatever!), is so much more poppy and fun than this strange brew. Whatever this is, it's certainly not bubblegum. Songs like Love Grows (where my Rosemary Goes) put this one in the shade. I can't imagine some happy tot munching on his Super Sugar Crisp and popping his copy of Knock Three Times off the back of the cereal box to give it a listen. It's not even subtle about its suggestiveness like the best bubblegum music is. I did watch their show, though. I pretty much watched anything that was on back in the day, so that's not a ringing endorsement, and though I can recall nothing specific about the show whatsoever, my impression from my recalling it just now was that it seemed really Vegas. Maybe that's my beef with Orlando: he seemed more like a Vegas approximation of a 70s musician than the real thing. Appearing now in the Ecstasy Lounge! Please try the surf and turf buffet! If you like them, cool, but in the immortal words of Austin Powers, not my bag, baby.
I do get the issue with Orlando being too schmaltzy, that's why I never cared for him solo (except his early hits were good) Telma and Joyce and their personalities.. especially on the show, went a LONG way to toning him down. I felt the recordings themselves were all great, "Knock Three Times" is not my favorite, but I think they were all just great middle of the road pop. The TV show was like most 70's variety shows... I don't think the schtick was all that great, the music portions were always the highlight. But they did have one hilarious moment that is well remembered, when Tony went to kiss and dip Phyllis Diller and she lost her wig. One thing you GOT to respect, is that Tony never went out on the road with anonymous women and called it "Tony Orlando and Dawn". That group has NEVER had a personnel change, and even with their live appearance just last year, it's those 3, and nobody different.
So - to return to my earlier post to which I slightly jumped the gun - Is Knock Three Times one of those "painted-on" Bell singles? I'll be able to answer this later today, after I go to my mother's house and see my single which is still there.
For my money, Dawn was never better than Candida and Knock Three Times. These two singles are passable and inoffensive pop, even though Candida is the name of a yeast infection and Knock Three Times is about a booty call. As they got more successful, their tunes got more unbearable. Still, I believe I have several of these singles in my collection as they sold in the zillions and were probably in a box of stuff I bought sight unseen.
...A lesser-known TODawn single I like is " Summer Sand " - " a sweet farewell to Brill Building pop ", I've been known to wax, " critic-like ", about it.
My Sweet Lord/Isn't It a Pity? With this song, we arrive at the first post-Beatles number one by one of the Fabs. In retrospect, it shouldn't have been so surprising that George was the one who scored first. While John and Paul had been pouring their songs into Beatles albums and solo work for years, George had been sitting on an ever-growing backlog of tunes that he had not been able to find an outlet for. Towards the end of the group, before they actually broke up, he even talked with the others about doing an occasional solo album between group projects to help alleviate the situation. John for one had been wholly supportive of that idea. But Paul's leaving in April of 1970 made that unnecessary. While Paul was busy bitching about Phil Spector in the press, both John and George showed what their opinion of him was by using him as producer on their first major solo projects. For George, the result ended up being All Things Must Pass, a massive, sprawling, three record effort that showed to the world just how much he had been keeping back during the Beatles. OK, he probably could have cut it to two records and made it even more spectacular (the Apple Jam is pretty superfluous), but it sold, it was the bloody Harrison All Things Must Pass album, shut up! Anyway, some of the songs from that album date as far back as 1966. From that point on, George was writing more and more songs, but still was limited to only a few tracks per album. All Things Must Pass, the song, was one of the numbers the Beatles played often during the Get Back sessions, but they never were able to come up with a satisfactory version and it remained unreleased (there were several other George songs from his first solo album that surfaced during the Get Back sessions, including Isn't It a Pity, Let It Down and Hear Me Lord; but they would all have to wait to be completed after the group broke up). All Things Must Pass is a great album, but to be honest, the Spector production on this one has always bugged me. With a few exceptions, such as Apple Scruffs, the songs all have this same echoey bombast to them that I think drains them of some of their power. And they hit the ground running from the first note, often not even building up to anything. It's a bad sign when you have instrumentalists listed on the credits that are buried so deep in the mix they cannot be found. From the single, My Sweet Lord escapes a little better from that than Isn't It a Pity. We've talked in some detail about the debt My Sweet Lord owes to He's So Fine. I've always had fun imagining a mash-up of the two songs: 'He's a sweet talking Lord, doo lang doo lang' or 'the boy with the wavy hair/Hare Krishna!'. But as I said before, I think this song really sounds more like a gospel song. I can hear the bits he owes to He's So Fine, but a lot of it is not really like it at all. Delaney Bramlett, whom George was hanging around with at the time, has even said that George asked him for help in understanding how to put together a gospel number. I think it's a great song, although on the surface it's pretty basic and repetitive. It goes to show that it is possible to create a song that repeats the same basic structure over and over (especially towards the end) and keep it really compelling. I also find it totally trippy that George slips a song on AM radio containing Hare Krishna chants (I haven't listened to all the covers, but I'm betting most people drop that stuff when doing the song). My Beatlemaniac college girlfriend used to love the one chant that sounds like 'Touch my cheekie'; at least that's what she thought they were saying. These days when I hear the song, I listen for that chant and chuckle when it comes on. As for Isn't It a Pity, it's another corker, mainly due to the epic quality. I find the song itself a bit dull and slow, but the way it builds is very compelling, and if I'm in the right mood, it's incredible to let it wash over you. I don't even mind Spector's overindulgence here; it seem quite appropriate for the effect George was trying to get. 1971 was George's greatest year. He had a monster hit single, his second single was also fantastic (I love What Is My Life? even more than My Sweet Lord), his album was a huge success, and he organized the Concert for Bangla Desh to boot. The Dark Horse really came roaring out of the gate, leaving his two more famous songwriting ex-partners behind. Hare Krishna! Here is a clip of George previewing Isn't It A Pity during the Get Back sessions to a bored Lennon and McCartney. Paul does contribute some harmonizing ideas towards the end.
There was a "painted-on" variant, can be seen on this link. Bestway gave up on the "painted-on" not long after The Partridge Family's "I'll Meet You Halfway."
For me, the production is the very thing that puts these songs over the top. Bombast is more often than not a good thing, especially when it comes to pop music and the busy, thick sounding production used here gives power to songs that could have been more dirge-like without it. Case in point, Isn't It A Pity. The sound is so compelling that I forget it's over 7 minutes long. Anyways, you're right about this being Harrison's finest year and he did indeed show the world just how much he was held back in the company of Lennon/McCartney. Isn't it a pity though, that he shot his wad with ATMP and The Concert For Bangladesh, leaving a rather spotty legacy thereafter.
Still on a Bell Records kick. By 1970, the Vogues had left Reprise and signed with Bell. This was played here and I bought this single, probably the last Vogues record in my collection.
Here's another Vogues song issued on Bell. They stepped out of their love song phase to record this message tune which was all the rage at the time.
The Chiffons did a quickie cover but Jody Miller had the big hit with this He's So Fine/My Sweet Lord mashup on Epic.
Just to prove you can't copyright an arrangement. Candida took almost everything from this Solomon Burke single.
