[beaversmom]

Link

[PapaNew]

I’m going to take a wild guess that you were also crazy about The Captain & Tennille and Love Will Keep Us Together. :)

[petercooper]

Interesting story about the name of the group.

Orlando was tempted back to a recording career when he was asked to record a demo record of “Candida”, with backup singers including Toni Wine (who wrote the song) and Linda November. Concerned about a possible conflict of interest with his April-Blackwood duties, Orlando sang under the condition that his name not be associated with the project, so it was released under the simple name of “Dawn”, the middle name of the daughter of Bell records executive Steve Wax.[5]

The song became a hit, and Dawn, with Wine and November again singing backup, recorded another song, “Knock Three Times”, which itself became a #1 hit. Orlando then wanted to go on tour, and asked two other session singers, Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson to join for the tour. Orlando then discovered that there were six touring groups using that name, so Dawn became “Dawn featuring Tony Orlando”, which changed to Tony Orlando and Dawn in 1973.

[dfwgator]

IIRC The song come out right after North Vietnam released our POWs, so tying yellow ribbons became a symbolic gesture to commemorate the returning POWs.

[Bratch]

The main thing I remember about the song is how its theme was co-opted by the public for the Iranian hostages.

Instead of "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" it was "Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round The Old Oak Tree".

That worked well.

[Baynative]

A great story of how the song got a huge boost from a great American, told by a great American.

[SeekAndFind]

[Covenantor]

For a long time I thought the lyrics were, “Tie a yellow gibbon by the old oak tree”, a follow up to “Muskrat Love”

[ought-six]

I was in the USAF, stationed in Asia when this came out. I hated the song then and I hate it still.

[Fiji Hill]

My all-time favorite tune by Tony Orlando:

Bless You (1961)

[Fiji Hill]

This one has a similar theme,

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon--The Andrews Sisters (1949)

[Enterprise]

I didn’t favor the song because it seemed to be about a guy getting out of prison. I wondered what his crime was because he went away for three years.

[Fiji Hill]

"Tie a Yellow Ribbon" went to number one on the Billboard Hot Hundred and stayed on the chart for almost half a year. But as it was falling, this tune--my favorite from 1973--was rising and would reach number eight.

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy--The Andrews Sisters