Knock Three Times
| "Knock Three Times" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Tony Orlando & Dawn | ||||
| from the album Candida | ||||
| B-side | "Home" | |||
| Released | 1970 | |||
| Format | 7" | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Length | 2:57 | |||
| Label | Bell | |||
| Writer(s) |
Irwin Levine L. Russell Brown | |||
| Producer(s) |
Hank Medress Dave Appel | |||
| Tony Orlando & Dawn singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Knock Three Times" is a popular song credited to Tony Orlando and Dawn. The actual singers were Tony Orlando, Toni Wine, and Linda November, prior to the creation of "Dawn" with Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson.[citation needed] The song was released as a single in November 1970, paired with Orlando's other hit song, "Candida" (also written by Toni Wine). The single hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1971 and eventually sold six million copies, also claiming the number-one spot on the UK Singles Chart.[1][2] The song registered well at Adult Contemporary stations, reaching #2 on Billboard's "Easy Listening" survey.
The composers of this song, L. Russell Brown and Irwin Levine, were thinking of the song Up on the Roof and they wanted to write a song with that kind of lyrical flavor, about tenement living. In the song, the singer has fallen in love with a woman who lives directly below him but has no clue as to her interest, so he asks her to respond by either knocking three times on the ceiling (yes) or banging twice on the pipe (no), and in the chorus includes sound effects of the two choices. (However, the song never states her response.)
Knock Three Times actually sold more than 100,000 records a day in New York City alone for ten straight days.[citation needed] The song appears in several motion pictures including Now and Then.
The song was covered by Billy "Crash" Craddock in 1971 and became a number three country hit.[3]
Dolly Parton performed the song on a 1976 episode of her variety series Dolly!.
In 1994 the Mexican group Banda Zeta recorded a Spanish versión called "Toca tres veces" for their album Jacarandosa.
Several Larry Craig-themed parodies (all titled "Tap Three Times") were recorded by various artists such as Paul and Storm and The Capitol Steps in 2007 following the senator's notorious sex scandal in which he was arrested for tapping his foot (to allegedly solicit gay sex) in a public airport restroom.[4][5][6][7]
Charts
| Chart (1971) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report)[8] | 1 |
| Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[ 1] | 6 |
| Belgium (VRT Top 30 Flanders)[9] | 2 |
| Canada (RPM 100 Singles)[10] | 1 |
| Germany (Media Control AG)[ 1] | 2 |
| Ireland (IRMA)[ 1] | 3 |
| Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[ 1] | 3 |
| New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[ 1] | 1 |
| Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[ 1] | 4 |
| United Kingdom (The Official Charts Company)[11] | 1 |
| US Billboard Hot 100[12] | 1 |
References
- ↑ Warner, Jay (2006-05-31). American singing groups: a history from 1940s to today. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 734. ISBN 9780634099786. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
- ↑ "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2013-05-29.
- ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 91.
- ↑ "Tap Three Times (I)".
- ↑ "Tap Three Times (II)".
- ↑ "Tap Three Times (III)".
- ↑ "Tap Three Times (IV)".
- ↑ Danyel Smith, ed. (1971). three times+dawn%22+%22angel%22&hl=fr&sa=X&ei=KjHrUa-4KYnL0QXOtYCIDg&ved=0CEMQ6AEwAzgK Billboard 15 june 1971. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
- ↑ "knock three times - dawn". VRT (in Dutch). Top30-2.radio2.be. Retrieved 25 July 2013. Hoogste notering in de top 30 : 1
- ↑ "Top Singles - Volume 42, No. 22, August 10, 1979". Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
- ↑ UK Singles Chart Chartstats.com (Retrieved April 10, 2008)
- ↑ richard-mn0000018513/awards "Dawn awards at Allmusic". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
External links
| Preceded by "My Sweet Lord" / "Isn't It a Pity" by George Harrison |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single January 23, 1971 (three weeks) |
Succeeded by "One Bad Apple" by The Osmonds |
| Preceded by "Double Barrel" by Dave and Ansell Collins |
UK Singles Chart number-one single May 15, 1971 (five weeks) |
Succeeded by "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" by Middle of the Road |
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