Green Green Grass of Home

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"Green Green Grass of Home", written by Claude "Curly" Putman Jr., is a country song originally made popular by Porter Wagoner in 1964 and Bobby Bare in 1965. 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 Elvis Presley in 1975, by Johnny Cash on his 1968 Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison album, Kenny Rogers on his self-titled album, Kenny Rogers, in 1977, and also by Stompin' Tom Connors on his album Stompin' Tom Connors, 'LIVE' at the Horseshoe in 1971. Joan Baez included the song on her 1969 album David's Album.

With lyrics in Swedish by Stikkan Anderson as "En sång en gång för längese'n", both Hootenanny Singers and Jan Malmsjö had each 1967 Svensktoppen hit with the song, for six respectively 33 weeks. This language version was also recorded by Lotta Engberg in 1997. The song was also recorded with lyrics in Serbian by Riblja Čorba as "Zelena trava doma mog", in 1993.

[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" (who obviously is an old sweetheart) 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 Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out	UK Christmas Number One single Green Green Grass of Home by Tom Jones 1966	Succeeded by The Beatles Hello, Goodbye
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

v • d • e UK Christmas number-one singles in the 1960s "I Love You" (Cliff Richard & The Shadows, 1960) · "Moon River" (Danny Williams, 1969) · "Return to Sender" (Elvis Presley, 1962) · "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (The Beatles, 1963) · "I Feel Fine" (The Beatles, 1964) · "Day Tripper" / "We Can Work It Out" (The Beatles, 1965) · "Green Green Grass of Home" (Tom Jones, 1966) · "Hello Goodbye" (The Beatles, 1967) · "Lily the Pink" (The Scaffold, 1968) · "Two Little Boys" (Rolf Harris, 1969) Complete list · 1950s · 1960s · 1970s · 1980s · 1990s · 2000s

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• BBC Interview with Tom Jones re. song "Green Green Grass of Home".