Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree

"Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree"
Single by Dawn featuring Tony Orlando
B-side	"I Can't Believe How Much I Love You"
Released	1973
Format	7", 12"
Recorded	1973
Genre	Pop
Label	Bell
Writer(s)	Irwin Levine, L. Russell Brown
Producer	Hank Medress, Dave Appell
Certification	Gold (RIAA)
Dawn featuring Tony Orlando singles chronology
"You're a Lady" (1972) "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" (1973) "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose" (1973)

"Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" was a song by Dawn featuring Tony Orlando.

Written by Irwin Levine and L. Russell Brown and produced by Hank Medress and Dave Appell, "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" was a massive worldwide hit in 1973 for Dawn featuring Tony Orlando.

It reached number one on both the US and UK charts for four weeks in April 1973 and number one on the Australian charts for seven weeks from May to July 1973. It was the top-selling single for the year 1973 in both the US and UK.

The song enjoyed duplicate success on country radio, as a cover version by Johnny Carver and one by Barry Manilow. Carver's rendition - titled simply "Yellow Ribbon" - was a top 10 on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart in June 1973.

The song had renewed popularity in 1981, in the wake of the Iranian hostage crisis.^[1]

The song lists at #37 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of all time.[1]

Background

The origin of the idea of a yellow ribbon as a token of remembrance may have been the 19th century practice that some women allegedly had of wearing a yellow ribbon in their hair to signify their devotion to a husband or sweetheart serving in the U.S. Cavalry - the official color of the cavalry is yellow (worn on insignia, etc.), and the song "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon," which later inspired the John Wayne movie of the same name, is a reference to this.

The symbol of a yellow ribbon became widely known in civilian life in the 1970s as a reminder of an absent loved one, either in the military or in jail that they would be welcomed home on their return.

In October 1971, newspaper columnist Pete Hamill wrote a piece for the New York Post called "Going Home." In it, college students on a bus trip to the beaches of Fort Lauderdale make friends with an ex-convict who is watching for a yellow handkerchief on a roadside oak in Brunswick, Georgia. Hamill claimed to have heard this story in oral tradition.

In June 1972, nine months later, Reader's Digest reprinted "Going Home." Also in June 1972, ABC-TV aired a dramatized version of it in which James Earl Jones played the role of the returning ex-con. A month-and-a-half after that, Irwin Levine and L. Russell Brown registered for copyright a song they called "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ole Oak Tree." The authors said they heard the story while serving in the military. Pete Hamill was not convinced and filed suit for infringement.

One factor that may have influenced Hamill's decision to do so was that, in May 1973, "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" sold 3 million records in three weeks. When the dust settled, BMI calculated that radio stations had played it 3 million times--seventeen continuous years of airplay. Hamill dropped his suit after folklorists working for Levine and Brown turned up archival versions of the story that had been collected before "Going Home" had been written.

Trivia

In 1979-1980, while American diplomats were being held by Iranian students on the grounds of the American Embassy in Tehran, a Yellow Ribbon campaign was used to show support to the captives. While the radical students attempted to convince them that Americans had forgotten them, the yellow ribbons showed continuing support for the POWs.

This song has been widely popular in the Philippines during early and mid-80s, particularly at the time when opposition leader Benigno "Ninoy" S. Aquino, Jr. expressed his intentions in 1983 to go back to his country from a 3-year exile in the United States and face President Ferdinand Marcos. After Ninoy's assassination at then Manila International Airport, the song and the yellow motif became synonymous with Ninoy, and was very much visible during anti-Marcos protests. In 1986, the yellow motif made a more thematic impact when his widow, Corazon Aquino, and the opposition used it during the campaign in the 1986 snap elections, she was swept to the presidency after the EDSA People Power Revolution. Everytime the Philippines celebrate Ninoy Aquino Day (August 21), yellow ribbons can be seen tied at many trees in Metro Manila along with yellow streamers of the late senator. A parody of the song was also made by Larry Henares in memory of the slain senator.

In Singapore, an initiative by the Singapore Prison Service to generate social acceptance of ex-offenders is named the Yellow Ribbon Project, having drawn inspiration from the song's title.

In popular culture

This was one of the songs performed by Don "No Soul" Simmons in Amazon Women On The Moon (1987).

The song is featured in the films Addams Family Values (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994).

The song can also be heard in the Short Film Wallace and Gromit and The Wrong Trousers by Nick Park, on the Penguins transistor Radio. It was one of only a few songs from the movie that was not removed on the DVDs due to royalty and right to use issues.

In the second episode of Miami 7, the song was performed by the band S Club 7, with lead vocals by Paul Cattermole, on stage in tuxedos, only to be bashed by the audience to play one of their own songs.

The song's melody was once used in a parody on the Jim Rome show by a caller who went by the name of Parody Patrick. The parody was so poorly received that the Patrick was run from the show and Jim Rome immediately banned all callers from making any parodies on his show.

In 2006, a widely circulated viral video featured the Asylum Street Spankers doing a satirical parody of the song, "Stick Magnetic Ribbons on Your SUV," which mocked the popular ribbon car magnets ^[2] intended to show support for American soldiers in the Iraq War.

References