Shelley Looney

In 1979 the Iranian government to 53 Americans hostage. Tom DeAngelo was an American DJ who noticed the gratitude Americans felt toward Canadians for their help in trying to free the hostages. DeAngelo wrote a narrative and got his eight-year-old next door neighbor Shelley Looney to record it. A&M Records Canada picked up the single up on February 6, 1980 after senior VP Joe Summers heard it. by the next day A&M received the tape and had it ready for release the next week.

Summers told RPM, "We think it's one hell of a message, but we're not out 'hyping' it per se. We're taking it in and saying listen to this. Almost anyone who listens gets a chill and gets a feeling from it. It kind of promotes itself in that sense." A&M also chose not to promote the single but made it available to people who heard it on the radio.