Brown, L. Russell

American lyricist and composer, “Larry” Brown was born in a Newark, New Jersey, housing project, the oldest of seven children of the impoverished family of a taxi driver. He was arrested at age eleven for stealing food from a railway boxcar for his hungry siblings. Later he was jailed for more serious thefts, but on his release, he turned his life around, determined to make a living in the music world. He wrote his first song at age sixteen for Fury Records. He co-wrote some songs with Ray Bloodworth, and with Bob Crewe in the mid 1960s; then in 1970, he teamed up with Irwin Levine, fifteen years older than he. The two had great success with “Tie a Yellow Ribbon on the Ole Oak Tree” and “Knock Three Times,” both written for the duo of Tony Orlando and Dawn. The first has been recorded over 1,000 times, by such well-known singers as Dean Martin and Dolly Parton and used in several films. The 1971 song for the Partridge Family, “I Woke up in Love This Morning,” sold two million copies. Twenty of Brown’s songs have sold a million copies.