Green Green Grass of Home
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Green Green Grass of Home", written by Claude "Curly" Putman Jr., is a country song originally made popular by Porter Wagoner in 1964 and Bobby Bare in 1965. It was sung later by Tom Jones in 1966 when it reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 1 December staying there for a total of seven weeks.[1] (It had been recorded earlier that year by Jerry Lee Lewis, without any great success). The Tom Jones record reached #11 pop, #12 easy listening on the Billboard US charts.
Since then it has been a popular cover song, recorded, for example, by Charley Pride on his 1966 album Country, by Johnny Cash on his 1968 Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison album, by Hank Snow on his 1968 album Hits, Hits and More Hits, by Joan Baez on her 1969 album David's Album, by Stompin' Tom Connors on his album Stompin' Tom Connors, 'LIVE' at the Horseshoe in 1971, by Elvis Presley in 1975 on his album Today, and also by Kenny Rogers on his self-titled album, Kenny Rogers, in 1977. Trini Lopez included the song on his Reprise Records album Trini Country (Reprise 6300)
With lyrics in Swedish by Stig Anderson as "En sång en gång för längese'n", both Björn Ulvaeus's Hootenanny Singers and Jan Malmsjö had each 1967 Svensktoppen hit with the song, for six respectively 33 weeks [2]. This language version was also recorded by Lotta Engberg in 1997. With lyrics in Portuguese by Geraldo Figueiredo as "Os Verdes Campos da Minha Terra", it was recorded in Brazil by Agnaldo Timóteo (1967), Belmonte and Amaraí (1968), Roberto Leal, and others. The song was also recorded with lyrics in Serbian by Riblja Čorba as "Zelena trava doma mog", in 1993. Jussi Raittinen has made the song in Finnish, under name "On ihmeen hyvä kotiin tulla taas".
Katherine Jenkins released the song as a single on 20 November 2006, and it was included on her Serenade album during the same year. A live version was included on the single, which was recorded at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, just prior to the Australia versus Wales Rugby match on 4 November 2006.
In February 2009 Tom Jones performed the song live on a special Take-Away Show with Vincent Moon, along with If He Should Ever Leave You and We Got Love live in front of a camera in a hotel room in New York[3].
There is a Japanese version of the song entitled "思い出のグリーングラス" (Omoide no GURIINGURASU) by 森山良子 (Ryōko Moriyama).
[edit] Overview
The song is about a man who has been away from home for a while. He tells that he is returning to his small home town in the country. When he steps down from the train, he touches the green grass. His parents and "sweet Mary" are there to welcome him. He observes tokens of his childhood, including "the old oak tree that [I] used to play on".
Then comes a spoken section where the singer awakens in prison: "Then I awake and look around me, at four grey walls that surround me. And I realize that I was only dreaming." The man is, in reality, awaiting his execution, and he will only return home when he is dead and buried: "Yes, they'll all come to see me in the shade of that old oak tree, as they lay me 'neath the green, green grass of home."
Norwegian singer Tor Endresen has released a version in which he changes "a guard and there's a sad old padre", to "a garden and a sad old partridge".
| Preceded by The Beatles |
UK Christmas Number One single
Green Green Grass of Home by Tom Jones 1966 |
Succeeded by The Beatles |
| Preceded by "Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys |
UK number one single 1 December 1966 (7 weeks) |
Succeeded by "I'm a Believer" by The Monkees |
|
||||||||
[edit] References
- ^ UK No. 1 Hit for Tom Jones on 1 December 1966 (seven weeks at no. one) http://www.theofficialcharts.com/all_the_no1_songs.php?show=2 Retrieved 01/09/07
- ^ Svensktoppen - 1967
- ^ http://www.blogotheque.net/Tom-Jones
