Where did the idea for the song "Tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree" come from ?

Question

Reader's Digest had an article about this along time ago. I think it sdasid that it was a true story in Brunswick. Ga.

Answer 1

It is from when Americans were held by Iran during its revolution for 444 days. The yellow ribbons were to show support for them.

Answer 2

Readers Digest July/August 2015, Page 116, A story by Pete Hamill from the New York Post tells the story of the guy that got out of prison in New York and was on his way home to Brunswick, GA and writes his wife and ask her if she will let him come home. If the answer is yes, then tie a yellow handkerchief around the old oak tree. Could this story possibly be the idea for the song "Tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree"? Article first appeared in the January 1972 issue of Reader's Digest.

Answer 3

It was from the April 1961 issue of Reader's Digest, a story in the "Life in These United States" section. A man was released from a Florida state penitentiary in the Spring of 1960 after serving three years for armed robbery. He got on a bus with a bunch of college kids on Easter Break in Fort Lauderdale and related his story to the college kids of how he wrote to his wife while in prison and asked her if he would tie a yellow ribbon to the oak tree in front of their home in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was not sure that his wife still wanted him. He left behind a wife and three children while serving time in prison. He told his wife that if he did not see the yellow ribbon, he would just stay on the bus and ride past. But the college kids cheered because there were yellow ribbons all over the oak tree. If you listen to Tony Orlando and Dawn's song, all the elements of the story are in the song. My source for this story is my memory, as I read it when I was 10 years old. I am now 63. When the song came out in 1974, the story line sounded so familiar and then I remembered reading it in Reader's Digest. You will have to get the exact April 1961 Reader's Digest to see the story for yourself.

Answer 4

Actually you are all a wee bit off base. The song came out in 1973 by Tony Orlando and Dawn and was originally written about a man who was released after "Three long years" in prison. He wrote his wife a note to let her know he still loved her and if she wanted him back she should "tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree" and if she didn't he'd "stay on the bus forget about us and put the blame on me."

It then became a sort of anthem for families of soldiers on duty or a show of loyalty for loved ones who were away as a show of love and support. This website tells the story, the folklore and has the lyrics.

Answer 5

I think it was during WWII when people would tie a ribbon, which ironically was yellow, around an oak tree, which, ironically was old to show their support for their loved ones fighting the commies, or Germans, what ever.

Answer 6

AIl was a song and if the ribbon wasn't tied around the old olk tree then stay on the bus and forget about us, it was a love song.
Now it means that a Soldier is comming home from Iraq.

Answer 7

OMG!! you all are wrong. Its a WWII song about a soldier telling his girlfriend to tie a yellow ribbon so that the other guys would know she's waiting for him to come home. Its my Grandparent's wedding song. http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,103772,00.html for a listen.

The 1972 version was about a guy going to jail for draft dodging during the Vietnam War. He wanted his girl to wait for him too.
www.coolrunning.com/forums/Forum1/HTML/111840-2.shtml

Answer 8

Jennie Lou has the only correct answer. The song took on the extra meaning of the Iran hostages, and ever since then has been used for the military. It is not from either world war. Sorry, guys, but you're wrong!

Here's what Wiki has to say:
"She Wore a Yellow Ribbon"
In the United States military, the symbol of the yellow ribbon is used in a popular marching song. The first version copyrighted was the 1917 version by George A. Norton, which he titled 'Round Her Neck She Wears a Yeller Ribbon (For Her Lover Who Is Fur, Fur Away). While he tells in the song about the love between Susie Simpkins and her soldier lover Silas Hubbard, his chorus goes:

'Round her neck she wears a yeller ribbon,
She wears it in winter and the summer so they say,
If you ask her "Why the decoration?"
She'll say "It's fur my lover who is fur, fur away.

The lyrics were altered and the song was titled She Wore a Yellow Ribbon by Russ Morgan for the 1949 movie of the same name. This was performed by several popular musicians of the 1940s, including Mitch Miller and The Andrews Sisters.

According to Glenn Morris, a member of the Leadership Council of the American Indian Movement of Colorado, an Attorney and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado at Denver, the idea of the yellow ribbons originated during the early days of this country when the cavalry that would go out to kill Indians. Before they left, the cavalry soldiers "would take that yellow kerchief off, tie it in their wife or their girlfriend's hair, and say, 'You wear this until I come back safely from killing Indians.'"

"Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Old Oak Tree"
The symbol became widely known in civilian life in the 1970s. It was the central theme of the popular song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Old Oak Tree", performed by Tony Orlando and Dawn, as the sign a released convict requested from his wife or lover, to indicate that she still wanted him and that he would therefore be welcome to return home. He would be able to see it from the bus driving by their house, and would stay on the bus in the absence of the ribbon. He turned out to be very welcome: there were a hundred yellow ribbons.

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.
In June of 1972, nine months later, Reader's Digest reprinted "Going Home." Also in June 1972, ABC-TV aired a dramatized version of it in which James Earl Jones played the role of the returning ex-con. A month-and-a-half after that, Irwin Levine and L. Russell Brown registered for copyright a song they called "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree." The authors said they heard the story while serving in the military. Pete Hamill was not convinced and filed suit for infringement.
One factor that may have influenced Hamill's decision to do so was that, in May 1973, "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" 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. Hammill 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.

Middle East conflicts
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.

Early Puritan history
The song/poem "She wore a yellow ribbon" has appeared in various forms for at least four centuries. It is based upon the same general theme. A woman of destiny is under some sort of test or trial as she waits for her beloved to return. Will she be true to him? This seems to be the lingering question and the basis for a great unfolding drama.

The song appears to have been brought to America from Europe by English settlers. The origin of the yellow ribbons seems likely to have come from out of the Puritan heritage. It was during the English Civil War that the Puritan Army of English Parliament wore yellow ribbons and yellow sashes onto the battlefield.

Answer 9

wrpstar has it partially right except it was world war 1 and for that reason he mentioned