The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia early 1973. Lawrence was, at the time, a regular performer on the ensemble variety comedy television show "The Carol Burnett Show"; on the final episode of the sixth season (March 24, 1973), Burnett surprised Lawrence by presenting her with an RIAA gold record for over a million copies sold. The song also scored number six on the Easy Listening chart, and it peaked at number 36 on "Billboard"'s Hot Country Singles chart. It was number one for two weeks on the "Billboard" Hot 100, and was finally topped by Tony Orlando and Dawn's "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole
Tony Orlando and Dawn (TV series) with recording credit "Tony Orlando & Dawn") (#27), "Steppin' Out (Gonna Boogie Tonight)" (#7), and, with some disco influence, "Look in My Eyes Pretty Woman" (#11), from their 1974 album "Prime Time". CBS gave the group a television variety show (entitled "Tony Orlando and Dawn") from the summer of 1974, after "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" ended its run, until December 1976. The show was in the same vein as its predecessor (with sketches featuring sarcastic back-and-forth banter between Orlando, Hopkins and Vincent, similar to the sarcastic dialogue between Sonny and Cher) and became a Top 20 hit. With