THE STORY BEHIND ‘TIE A YELLOW RIBBON ROUND THE OLE OAK TREE’

Irwin Levine and Larry Brown had written Dawn’s previous No. 1 single, “Knock Three Times.”

Levine had read a story in the January 1972 edition of Reader’s Digest about six kids riding a bus from New York to Fort Lauderdale. Fla. They struck up a conversation with a man who told them he had just been released from prison and was headed home to Brunswick, Georgia.

The man had told his wife that she could start a new life without him and, for the last 3½ years, hadn’t heard from her. So in his final letter home before his release, he told her to tie a yellow handkerchief to the giant oak tree on the edge of town if she wanted to take him back. If he didn’t see a handkerchief, he’d simply stay on the bus and try to restart a new life in Miami.

Everyone aboard the bus was on the alert when the bus got to Brunswick, where they saw the tree — with several handkerchiefs attached.

Naturally, though, it never happened. It was just an old folk tale. Newspaper columnist and author Pete Hamill had heard the story — but about White Oak, Georgia, instead of Brunswick. He had written the story up for the New York Post in October 1971 and it was reprinted in Reader’s Digest.

Levine and Brown read the tale and thought it would make a fun song. They changed the handkerchief to a ribbon in order to help fit it better into the lyrics of a song.

The single was nominated for two Grammy awards. As soldiers began returning from the Vietnam War, their loved ones began tying yellow ribbons on trees to welcome them home.

In 1991, Tony Orlando and Dawn reunited to record one more single: “With Ev’ry Yellow Ribbon (That’s Why We Tie ’Em).”