L. Russell Brown with Ray Bloodworth in the mid-1960s, and working for Bob Crewe, he wrote the hits "C'mon Marianne" and "Watch the Flowers Grow" for the Four Seasons. "C'mon Marianne" featured in "Jersey Boys", the Broadway musical. With Crewe, Brown also wrote "Sock It to Me Baby!", a 1967 hit for Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. Brown started writing with Irwin Levine in 1970, and found success with several hits for Dawn, including "Knock Three Times", "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" - both songs reaching #1 in the US and UK – and "Say, Has Anybody Seen
Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree four weeks in April 1973, number one on the Australian charts for seven weeks from May to July 1973 and number one on the New Zealand charts for ten weeks from June to August 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 song of all time in its issue celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Hot 100. The song is told from the point of view of someone who has "done his time" but is uncertain if he will be welcomed home. He writes