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As the backing duo for singer Tony Orlando, Dawn was among the biggest pop acts of the '70s. Vocalists Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent (later Joyce Vincent-Wilson) got together in Detroit during the late '60s and made a profitable living as session singers, most often for the Motown label (though Hopkins' highest-profile gig was delivering the line "shut your mouth" on Isaac Hayes' "Shaft"). There is some dispute as to how exactly Dawn hooked up with Orlando, or just how many of the group's early singles Hopkins and Vincent actually performed on. The first single credited to Dawn, 1970's "Candida," featured lead vocals by Orlando, but he wasn't credited because of his job with a music publishing company owned by a different label; the moniker Dawn was actually chosen because it was the name of one of the producers' daughters. Hopkins and Vincent may have sung on the backing track, or it may have featured different, anonymous vocalists, after which Orlando chose Hopkins and Vincent to b...