(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden

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I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (often shortened to Rose Garden ) is a country song that was written and first recorded by Joe South , but only became a worldwide hit when interpreted by Lynn Anderson . The huge success of the single ensured that Anderson's version of the piece became one of the most famous songs in country music. The title of the song is a popular English word that goes back to the 1964 novel I Never Promised You a Rose Garden published by Joanne Greenberg and filmed in 1977 .

Emergence

Writer Joe South recorded the song for his 1969 album Introspect , trying to express that not everything was perfect in his relationship, but that they should see the good in it and cope with the worse. Although South was a well-known country singer, the song was not noticed by anyone. Another version can be found on the album Fantastic by the American soul and blues band 3rd Avenue Blues Band from 1969, which was also released as a single.

It wasn't until a year later that the piece became a huge success when Lynn Anderson covered it . In 1967, with Promises, Promises, she was already able to book a number 1 album in the country charts, but had not yet reached a number 1 position with a single.

At Columbia Records they weren't happy to play South's composition at first, as the label clearly indicates a male first-person narrator through lines like “I could promise you things like big diamond rings”, and this would not allow this that a woman could interpret the song credibly. However, Anderson insisted on recording the song. In the end, the number was only recorded because there was time left at the end of a session and you wanted to use it.

The single was produced by Anderson's husband Glenn Sutton and released in October 1970. It became an instant success. Not only did the song reach number one on the US country charts on Billboard Magazine , it became a crossover hit that also reached number three on the pop charts . At the same time, the number also took third place in the charts in England and other top positions in European countries (including number 1 in Norway, Germany and Switzerland), which makes Rose Garden one of the most successful country songs in Europe. The song also took first place in Australia and Japan.

In 1971, Anderson won the Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance - Country.

The song was later covered by other artists, including Glen Campbell , Martina McBride , Dottie West and Audrey Landers . Siw Malmkvist produced a German version of the song entitled Liebe wie im Rosengarten .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Svenja Hein, Dominik Gross, Jean-Philippe Ernst: American psychiatry history in the mirror of the novel "I Never Promised You A Rose Garden" by Joanne Greenberg. In: Dominik Gross, Stephanie Kaiser (Hrsg.): Medical history in spotlights. Contributions of the "Rheinischer Kreis der Medizinhistoriker". kassel university press, Kassel 2011, ISBN 978-3-86219-000-3 , p. 323.
  2. ^ Roland, Tom: The Billboard Book Of Number One Country Hits . New York City / New York: Billboard Books; London: Guinness Publishing Ltd., 1991, p. 48
  3. ^ Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Singles 1955-1993 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Ltd., 1994, p. 15
  4. ^ Nugent, Stephen / Fowler, Anne / Fowler, Pete: Chart Log of American / British Top 20 Hits, 1955-1974 . In: Gillett, Charlie / Frith, Simon (eds.): Rock File 4 . Frogmore, St. Albans: Panther Books, 1976, p. 70
  5. ↑ Ehnert, Günter (Ed.): Hit balance sheet. German chart singles 1956-1980 . Hamburg: Taurus Press, 1990, p. 17
  6. ↑ Love like in the rose garden on the official website of Siw Malmkvist