Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose

History

The songwriting duo of Levine and Brown had also penned other Tony Orlando and Dawn hit songs, including "Knock Three Times" and "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree". According to Orlando, Levine was a fan of singer Al Jolson and proposed the concept of "Say, Has Anybody Seen..." to producer Hank Medress. Orlando is quoted as saying: "Irwin Levine, the lyricist of the two, had this love for Jolson. He said, 'Hank, I'd like to write some songs that could have been written in the early 1900s.'" With this concept in mind, the songwriters, producers and musicians began creating Dawn's New Ragtime Follies.

Lyric content

The selection is narrated by a husband seeking his wife in New Orleans, Louisiana. Shocked, and in disbelief, that the wife, named Mary Jo, would abandon him and their children to join a burlesque show at "The Land Of Dreams," a New Orleans strip joint, where she calls herself "Sweet Gypsy Rose," he devotes himself to searching for her, hoping to convince her to give up her activities as a stripper and return to their home and family.

Release and reception

Officially credited as being performed by Dawn featuring Tony Orlando and released as the lead single from the aforementioned album, "Say, Has Anybody Seen..." became the group's fourth top ten single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in September 1973, peaking at #3. The song spent three weeks atop the Billboard adult contemporary chart in August and September of that year. It reached #12 on the UK Singles Chart at roughly the same time, and made it to #2 on the Australian pop chart. It is now used as the intro song for a section called "Gipsy Rose Dick" as part of the CBBC programme "Dick and Dom's Hoopla."

Cover versions

Also in 1973, a version of the song by country-pop singer Terry Stafford was included on the 7" single release of Stafford's hit, "Amarillo by Morning."

David Alan Grier covered the song for a sketch in Amazon Women on the Moon.