"Delta Dawn" is a song written by former child rockabilly star Larry Collins and songwriter Alex Harvey (who more often goes by the name Alexander Harvey today, and is not to be confused with the late Glaswegian rocker Alex Harvey), best known as a 1972 Top Ten C&W hit for Tanya Tucker and a #1 hit for Helen Reddy in 1973.

The title character of "Delta Dawn" is a faded southern belle from Brownsville, Tennessee who at forty-one is obsessed to unreason by the long ago memory of an errant suitor. The song's lyrics describe how the woman regularly "walks downtown with a suitcase in her hand/ Looking for a mysterious dark haired man" who she says is "meeting her…today/ To take [her] to his mansion in the sky".

The song is said to have been inspired by a woman named Dawn Parsworth who waited aimlessly for days for a man who had stood her up after promising to marry her. She would walk up to the bus-stop every day slowly becoming more and more mentally-ill. She was later admitted to a Brownsville asylum where she died in a ward cell.

The song's composer Alex Harvey made the first recording of "Delta Dawn". Tracy Nelson, who sang backup on Harvey's recording, performed "Delta Dawn" in her live act and after hearing Nelson sing "Delta Dawn" at the Bottom Line in New York City Bette Midler added the song to her repertoire. Nashville-based producer Billy Sherrill heard Midler sing "Delta Dawn" on The Tonight Showand wanted to sign her to Epic Records and have her record the song. Finding out that Midler was already signed to Atlantic Records, Sherrill cut the song with Tanya Tucker who was newly signed to Epic and Tucker's version reached #6 C&W in the spring of 1972. Record producer Tom Catalano prepped an instrumental track of "Delta Dawn", virtually replicating that of Tucker's single, and - despite Catalano having worked with Helen Reddy - the track was first offered to Barbra Streisand, upon whose refusal Catalano had Reddy add her vocals to the track.

In the meantime Bette Midler had recorded "Delta Dawn" for her The Divine Miss Mdebut album from which her bluesy version was planned as the lead single. The June 1973 single release of Reddy's version was two days prior to Midler's necessitating the amendment of the latter's single so that the original B-side "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" was shopped to radio, becoming a Top Ten hit. Reddy's version of "Delta Dawn" entered the Top Ten in August 1973 to spend two weeks at #1 that September, becoming Reddy's second #1 hit after "I Am Woman"; Reddy would subsequently reach #1 with "Angie Baby". "Delta Dawn" also became the first of Reddy's six consecutive - and eight overall - #1 hits on the Easy Listening chart in Billboard.

In Reddy's native Australia, where she'd reached #2 with both "I Don't Know How to Love Him" and "I Am Woman", "Delta Dawn" became Reddy's first #1 hit, spending five weeks atop the chart in August and September 1973. The follow-up single "Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)" gave Reddy a second consecutive - and final - Australian #1.

"Delta Dawn" also marked Reddy's only chart appearance in South Africa, reaching #13 in the autumn of 1973.

"Delta Dawn" has been recorded by a number of C&W artists: Bob Luman, Loretta Lynn, the Statler Brothers, Waylon Jennings, Kitty Wells and Dottie West. The song was also recorded by Teresa Brewer and Scott Walker.

"Delta Dawn" has been popular across college campuses in the southeastern United States since the late 1980s, as New Orleans based cowpunk band Dash Rip Rock has made it one of their signature live tunes. The song has also been released on the Dash Rip Rock album Boiled Alive. Punk rock band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes recorded "Delta Dawn" for their 2004 live album Ruin Jonny's Bar Mitzvah.