Single:
Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree entered the Australian singles chart* on 2 April 1973 and peaked at #1. The song ranked #1 on the Top 100 of 1973.
Album:
The song is on Dawn’s 1973 album Tuneweaving.
Songwriters:
Irwin Levine, Larry Brown
Producers:
Hank Medress, Dave Appell
Record label of Australian release:
Bell
*Kent Music Report / Australian Chart Book. See About.
Songfacts:
The song is based on a story called Going Home that songwriter Irwin Levine read in Reader’s Digest, originally published in the New York Post in 1971.
In the story, six kids riding a bus from New York to Fort Lauderdale strike up a conversation with a man named Vingo, who tells them he was just released from prison after four years in jail. He told his wife, Martha, that she could start a new life without him, and for the last three-and-a-half years of his incarceration, he didn’t hear from her. In his last letter to her, he gave her instructions. The story reads:
We used to live in this town, Brunswick, just before Jacksonville, and there’s a big oak tree just as you come into town, a very famous tree, huge. I told her that if she’d take me back, she should put a yellow handkerchief on the tree and I’d get off and come home. If she didn’t want me, forget it – no handkerchief and I’d go through.
Everyone on the bus kept a lookout for the tree and when they arrived there were lots of handkerchiefs tied to it, giving the story a very happy ending.
It’s a folk story; different versions of it had been floating around for decades.
Read more: www.songfacts.com/facts/tony-orlando-dawn/tie-a-yellow-ribbon-round-the-ole-oak-tree
Lyrics:
I’m comin’ home, I’ve done my time
Now I’ve got to know what is and isn’t mine
If you received my letter telling you I’d soon be free
Then you’ll know just what to do
If you still want me, if you still want me
Click for full lyrics
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