What Are You Doing Sunday?

Album: Candida (1970)
Charted: 3 39
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This was written by Irwin Levine and Toni Wine, who were the team that wrote "Candida," which was the first hit for Tony Orlando & Dawn. Says Wine, "We just wanted a happy, feel-good song. You know, 'Hey, what are you doing Sunday? You wanna marry me? Cool.' You know, and we did it. Really, we just wanted to have these two young people in love. Young love is always great to write about, and just very positive. That was a very positive time. There weren't really many songs of sadness. Sure, love gone wrong, and things that didn't work out, but I guess that whole period had a lot of uplifting songs. So we just joined it." (For more, check out our interview with Toni Wine.)

Comments: 1

  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn January 29th 1972, Dawn featuring Tony Orlando performed "What Are You Doing Sunday" on the ABC-TV program 'American Bandstand'...
    Four months earlier on September 26th, 1971 it entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; and on November 7th, 1971 it peaked at #39 {for 1 week} and spent 9 weeks on the Top 100...
    Two years later in 1973 the trio changed their name to 'Tony Orlando and Dawn' {they had ten charted releases on the Top 100 using this name}.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Have Mercy! It's Wolfman Jack

Have Mercy! It's Wolfman JackSong Writing

The story of the legendary lupine DJ through the songs he inspired.

Protest Songs

Protest SongsMusic Quiz

How well do you know your protest songs (including the one that went to #1)?

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In Songs

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In SongsSong Writing

Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.

Joe Elliott of Def Leppard

Joe Elliott of Def LeppardSongwriter Interviews

The Def Leppard frontman talks about their "lamentable" hit he never thought of as a single, and why he's juiced by his Mott The Hoople cover band.

Chris Frantz - "Genius of Love"

Chris Frantz - "Genius of Love"They're Playing My Song

Chris and his wife Tina were the rhythm section for Talking Heads when they formed The Tom Tom Club. "Genius of Love" was their blockbuster, but David Byrne only mentioned it once.

Modern A Cappella with Peder Karlsson of The Real Group

Modern A Cappella with Peder Karlsson of The Real GroupSong Writing

The leader of the Modern A Cappella movement talks about the genre.