Originally written as a folk song, arranger Charles Calello sped it up and at Valli's suggestion added a galloping rhythm guitar borrowed from Kai Windings version of "More". Drummer Buddy Saltzman accented the recording with bombastic around the kit fills and ghost notes while never using a cymbal once. The single version (with a two-line sung introduction) was never recorded in true stereo. Early "stereo" album releases were rechanneled (with the high and low frequencies on one channel and the midrange on the other); later stereo issues, from the Edizione d'Oro greatest hits album onward, offer different takes of the recording, One begins with a short drum intro, featuring a louder perhaps even more frantic drum backing by legendary session drummer Buddy Saltzman, and slightly different vocals. Both versions state they are two minutes, eleven seconds long--neither is. The stereo Dawn is two minutes, thirty seconds. The mono Dawn with the "Pretty as midsummer's morn. They called her Dawn" intro is two minutes 45 seconds