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Let's Save Tony Orlando's House Lyrics

"We Proudly Welcome Tony Orlando"
The state fair marquee reads
Inside, a thousand people with yellow ribbons sing
And clap on 1 and 3

Watch him burn
He's dropping to his knees
Watch him burn
A medley: hits from Grease
Watch him burn
He never fails to please

Meanwhile in Tahoe outside Casa Tony
Wet rags of gasoline
A jealous Frankie Valli says, "Dawn, I want you back"
Lights a match and counts to three

Watch it burn
Reluctantly he leaves
Watch it burn
Acrid smoke making him wheeze
Watch it burn
Humming "Sherry," splits the scene

Watch it burn
Reluctantly he leaves
Watch it burn
Acrid smoke making him wheeze
Watch it burn
Humming "Sherry," splits the scene

"We're sorry to inform you
Tony Orlando has been postponed."
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Cover art for Let's Save Tony Orlando's House lyrics by Yo La Tengo

There's an interesting interview in The Onion which explains where the title of the song came from: http://www.theonionavclub.com/feature/index.php?issue=3610&f=2

The Onion: How many of your songs are inspired by The Simpsons?

Ira Kaplan: I think "Let's Save Tony Orlando's House" is the first one.

O: Really?

IK: I think so. Well, our songs take a long time to become songs. Most of the songs on this record have earlier incarnations as instrumentals with varying degrees of shape to them. Different elements of those instrumentals get preserved, so James [McNew, bass] keeps track of a lot of those instrumentals and gives them funny titles, which of course all go away eventually. A song that is an instrumental will sometimes keep its title, but not "Tired Hippo," for instance. He named one series of instrumentals after the Troy McClure filmography, and, much to his surprise, the title stuck. He didn't never intended for it to be the last word on the title, but then I showed him the lyrics I wrote.

The story in the song is some sort of fiction (http://weeklywire.com/ww/02-28-00/boston_music_1.html): Not everything is quite this direct: Kaplan reluctantly glosses "Let's Save Tony Orlando's House" as "a made-up story about Frankie Valli. He's jealous that the name 'Dawn' is associated with Tony Orlando instead of the Four Seasons, so he burns down his house."

Cover art for Let's Save Tony Orlando's House lyrics by Yo La Tengo

There's also a theory that this song is a fictious story about the woman called Dawn (from the Frankie Valli song "Dawn (Go Away)") being the same Dawn of "Tony Orlando and Dawn" (even though Dawn was the name of the band).

And thus Frankie is trying to get Dawn back.

Cover art for Let's Save Tony Orlando's House lyrics by Yo La Tengo

this song is like one of those grocery store songs you'd hear but its such a pretty song.

Cover art for Let's Save Tony Orlando's House lyrics by Yo La Tengo

The most famous song by Tony Orlando was a duet with Dawn, on the '70s, called "Tie a Yellow Ribbon ('round the ol' oak tree)". You can hear Don 'No Soul' Simmons cover it on 'Amazon Women on the Moon' XD

Wow, nice reference to Amazon Women on the Moon. Brownie points:)

 
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