Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree covering the event described use of the tune as a protest song. Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" is a song by Tony Orlando and Dawn. It was written by Irwin Levine and L. Russell Brown and produced by Hank Medress and Dave Appell, with Motown/Stax backing vocalist Telma Hopkins, Joyce Vincent Wilson and her sister Pamela Vincent on backing vocals. It was a worldwide hit for the group in 1973. The single reached the top 10 in ten countries, in eight of which it topped the charts.
Tony Orlando and Dawn whom he had hired to work as background vocalists while producing Barry Manilow in the late 1960s, to become Dawn. The threesome then went on the road in 1971, on the success of "Candida" and "Knock Three Times". After a tour of Europe, Hopkins and Vincent assumed background vocal duties in the studio, first recording on the late 1971 album "Dawn Featuring Tony Orlando". They were joined in the studio by Vincent's sister Pamela Vincent, who sang and arranged the backing vocals. Touring commitments with Aretha Franklin prevented Vincent from appearing with Dawn on tour. The first single with their