Number One Songs—Tie a Yellow Ribbon (Round the Old Oak Tree)
"Now if we had the power 
Yellow ribbon flown in 1979 by Penne Laingen when her husband, US diplomat Bruce Laingen, was held captive during the Iran hostage crisis; among the first of the modern "yellow ribbons." Picture courtesy Library of Congress.
From the Library of Congress:
In October of 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. Hamill claimed to have heard this story in oral tradition.
One factor that may have influenced Hamill's decision to do so was that, in May 1973, "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" [was recorded and released by Tony Orlando and Dawn] and sold 3 million records in three weeks. When the dust settled, BMI calculated that radio stations had played it 3 million times--that's 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.
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In 1949 a movie starring John Wayne and Joanne Dru was released under the title, Round Her Neck She Wore A Yellow Ribbon. The film is set during the Civil War and while it takes its name from a popular folk song of the time by the same name, much earlier printings of the song are in existence. It may be hundreds of years old.
The Library of Congress research concludes that the "yellow ribbon phenomenon" actually is derived from a folk legend that goes like this:
"It is the story of two men in a railroad train. One was so reserved that his companion had difficulty in persuading him to talk about himself. He was, he said at length, a convict returning from five years' imprisonment in a distant prison, but his people were too poor to visit him and were too uneducated to be very articulate on paper. Hence he had written to them to make a sign for him when he was released and came home. If they wanted him, they should put a white ribbon in the big apple tree which stood close to the railroad track at the bottom of the garden, and he would get off the train, but if they did not want him, they were to do nothing and he would stay on the train and seek a new life elsewhere. He said that they were nearing his home town and that he couldn't bear to look. His new friend said that he would look and took his place by the window to watch for the apple tree which the other had described to him.
"In a minute he put a hand on his companion's arm. 'There it is,' he cried. 'It's all right! The whole tree is white with ribbons.'" —Library of Congress
"During the Iran hostage crisis, the yellow ribbon was used a symbol of support for the hostages held at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. This symbolism began in December 1979, when Penelope Laingen, wife of the most senior foreign service officer being held hostage, tied a yellow ribbon around a tree on the lawn of her Maryland home. The ribbon primarily symbolized the resolve of the American people to win the hostages' safe release, and it featured prominently in the celebrations of their return home in January 1981.
"The yellow ribbon saw renewed popularity in the United States during the Gulf War in the early 1990s. It appeared along with the slogan "support our troops," in the form of yellow ribbons tied to trees, and countless other contexts. It often had the implied meaning of supporting the Desert Shield and Desert Storm troop deployments themselves and/or loyalty to President George Bush, and therefore became somewhat politicized. It appeared again during the 2003 invasion of Iraq with similar meanings, most prominently in the form of a yellow ribbon printed on magnetized material and displayed on the outside of automobiles." —Wikipedia
SIDEBAR: Today ribbons of many colors are displayed for many causes, including support for troops overseas, cancer recovery, suicide prevention and more. Collectively they are called "Awareness Ribbons."
Tony Orlando and Dawn's "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" debuted on Billboard's Hot 100 in March of 1973 and soon reached the #1 spot where it stayed for four weks.
Despite the public's wide acceptance of both the song and its message, for songwriters L. Russell Brown and Irwin Levine, "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" met with an inauspicious beginning.
"We decided to bring it to Apple Records [founded by the Beatles] to play it for Ringo Starr. So we went and met with the head of A&R for the company...We got out the guitar and attempted to sing the song live. When we got to the chorus, [he] grabbed the guitar neck, deadening the strings, looked at me, and said, 'This is embarrassing. You've had hits before but this song could ruin you. Don't you have anything good to play today?'" —Off The Record: Songwriters on Songwriting
Go figure.
I'm comin' home, I've done my time
Whoa, tie a yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree
Bus driver, please look for me
Whoa, tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree
Now the whole damned bus is cheerin'
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