A slight case of mistaken identity…

Well, who would have thought? I’ve been a Tony Orlando fan for years, and thought I knew anything that was worth knowing about the man, and the music he made during the 1960s. Like, I’m sure, many people out there, I’d always believed that his first record was not “Halfway To Paradise” but, rather, the ultra-obscure “Ding Dong” on the Milo label. Tony has himself denied that it was him on a few occasions, but I’d always chalked this up to being a case of an artist being embarrassed by an unwanted skeleton in his musical closet, and carred on my search for a copy of this $100.00+ rated, collectors item to add to my TO collection…

…well, more fool me, is all I can say. Thanks to the diligent research of Ace’s friend Bill Millar, it appears that there were indeed two Tony Orlandos, both of whom initially recorded within a few months of each other. The early career of the more famous one is dealt with in the booklet of Ace’s recent “Halfway To Paradise” CD – as, unfortunately, are my thoughts on the Milo 45, for which I’ve already slapped my own behind and called myself stupid, in case anyone else was thinking of doing it for me.

The rather more obscure one hailed from Newark, New Jersey, and he recorded his one and only 45 at the Milo label’s own studios in Harrison, NJ. After “Halfway To Paradise” hit, this other TO apparently got plenty of live work on the strength of being able to prove that he was the real Tony Orlando (or, at least, a real TO!) and, although no more 45s were forthcoming, he apparently also hung out a lot at the Bloomfield, NJ recording studio that was owned by his homeboys, Nick Massi and Tommy Devito of the Four Seasons.

Of course, there have been other examples of two recording artists successfully sharing the same name, without one being related to the other. Little Johnny Taylor and Johnnie Taylor are prime cases in point - in fact, in his pre-hit days, JT recorded LJT’s “Part Time Love” so that he could claim, not inaccurately, that he was Johnnie Taylor of “Part Time Love” fame! And, as Bill rightly reminded me, there were also two Sonny Knight’s whose recording careers overlapped in the 50s and 60s. Not to mention four Paul Williamses – the 50s R & B saxman, the original early 60s lead singer of the Temptations, the mid 60s Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band member and the 1970s man who wrote “We’ve Only Just Begun” and the sountrack for “Bugsy Malone”, among other things. But two Tony Orlandos, and both recording within 6 months of each other? Like I say, who’d’a thought!

So with an apology to both men for the mix up, and a hope that this will now set the record straight for once and for all, I’ll be off home to atone for my ‘sins’ by making sure that I haven’t accidentally mixed up any records by 60s Chicago soul icon Billy Butler and 50s/60s R & B guitar man Billy Butler.


TONY ROUNCE (of whom there’s only one, as far as he’s aware…)

A quick PS: While I’m on the subject of the more famous Tony Orlando, something that somehow dropped out of my notes was the fact that, on leaving Epic, he did record a couple more singles under his own name before retiring entirely – the fantastic Teddy Randazzo production “Think Before You Act” for Atco in 1965, and the not-half-bad “Sweet, Sweet” for Cameo two years later. These two were definitely by ‘the real’ TO and not the Milo guy, in case anyone was wondering…