Irwin Levine Irwin Levine Irwin Jesse Levine (March 23, 1938 – January 21, 1997) was an American songwriter, who co-wrote the song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" with L. Russell Brown. The song was a worldwide hit for Tony Orlando and Dawn as it reached number one on both the US and UK charts for four weeks in April 1973 and number one on the Australian charts for seven weeks from May to July 1973. It was the top-selling single in 1973 in both the US and UK. In 2008, "Billboard" ranked the song as the 37th biggest
Encino Oak Tree in the pre-urban Encino that the community was named after the Spanish word for "oak." The Encino oak was the most magnificent of the community's oaks, so large that Louise Avenue was split to accommodate its enormous canopy, diameter, and circumference. It has been said that the Encino oak "creates a woodsy atmosphere more resembling a whole forest than just a single tree." In 1958, the oak was threatened when a developer planned to bulldoze the tree to build a road. Local residents formed a group called Encino Save the Oaks and the developer eventually donated the tree to the