I heard "Tie a Yellow Ribbon..." and now I can't get it out of my head.

Remember "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ole Oak Tree" sung by Tony Orlando and Dawn? I just heard that lately. I'm old enough to remember when the song came out. I think that it was around 1973 when people started putting yellow ribbons on trees to show there support for the military in Vietnam. Rows of trees could be seen with yellow ribbons. It was quite a sight. Of course this was decades before the yellow ribbon car magnets that you see all over the place became popular.

Tony Orlando has written an autobiography called Halfway to Paradise (biography section, #781.64 ORL). I didn't even know that the book title is the title of his first hit in 1961. I only remember him from the 1970s, beginning with his song, "Candida." In fact, he was popular enough to travel the concert circuits with Gene Pitney, Brian Hyland, Ray Stevens, and Bobby Vinton back in the '60s.

After touring, he settled in to work as an executive at Columbia working under Clive Davis. Even though he was not recording at Columbia, it did not stop him; he secretly recorded music for another company (Bell). After "Knock Three Times" became a big hit, even reaching #1 in England, he decided he should leave Columbia and concentrate on his singing career. Several bands claimed to be the original Tony Orlando and Dawn. He wanted to make sure that he did not lose control of his music career by having someone else gain legal access to the name.

As with many famous people, he's had his share of drug addictions. At times they were bad enough, that he ended up in a facility. Lindsay Lohan had it easy compared to what Orlando describes in his book.

This book is an easy read and will delight anyone who wants to reminisce about the good old days of music during the '60s and '70s.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007