# Wearing a green willow branch and not a yellow ribbon

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wearing-a-green-willow-branch-and-not-a-yellow-ribbon/268227>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [October 8, 2004, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wearing-a-green-willow-branch-and-not-a-yellow-ribbon/268227 "2004-10-08T17:41:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wearing-a-green-willow-branch-and-not-a-yellow-ribbon/268227/1 "2004-10-08T17:41:10Z")

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> [@Cecil](#):
>
> [Here](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_008.html) This in turn was apparently based on the popular 1838 minstrel-show song All Round My Hat (surely you remember it), which sported the line, "All round my hat I [w]ears a green willow [because] my true love is far, far away.

Some of us remember it. Steeleye Span made #5 in the UK in 1975 with it. Yeah, that was the 70s and all sorts of crap (though I happen to like it) made the Top Ten, especially over there, but it is no more forgotten than “Kung Fu Fighting” or “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero.” In addition, perhaps the minstrels sang it but it is obviously a song from the British Isles because his lover has been transported for theft.