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It's Flag Day, but before we get to today's "Great Song of the '70s," here's a little history lesson.
In the 1800s, it became a tradition for women to wear a yellow ribbon in their hair in a show of devotion to a husband or sweetheart serving in the US Cavalry. The 1949 John Wayne film, "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" pays tribute to that tradition.
Skipping ahead to the 1970s, the tradition was adopted by women waiting for their loved ones to come home from Viet Nam.
In 1971, newspaper columnist Pete Hammill wrote a variation of the story called "Going Home." His version was about an ex-convict who happened to get on a bus filled with college students...and what happened next.
After it was published in the New York Post and the Reader's Digest, songwriters Irvin Levine and L. Russell Brown thought the story would make a "Great Song." And they were right!
Tony Orlando and Dawn recorded the song in 1973, and it not only became a "Great Song of the '70s," but one of the biggest hits of all time!
"Tie a Yellow Ribbon Around the Old Oak Tree" sold 3 million copies in the US alone! It went to #1 in 10 countries, and reached the Top 10 in 2 others. In the US and Canada it went to #1 on TWO charts: Top 40 and Adult Contemporary. In New Zealand, it was #1 for TEN weeks!
It was the #1 song of 1973, and in 2008, when Billboard celebrated its 60th Anniversary of the Hot 100, "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" was ranked as the 46th biggest hit of all time!
If you listen to the lyrics closely, you'll note that except for one mention of the word "prison," the song could easily be about a war veteran coming home.
And that's why I think it's a "Great Song" to highlight on Flag Day!
"Tie a Yellow Ribbon Around the Old Oak Tree" by Tony Orlando and Dawn (Telma Hopkins & Joyce Vincent Wilson):
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