"Rose Garden" | ||||
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Single by Lynn Anderson | ||||
from the album Rose Garden | ||||
B-side | "Nothing Between Us" | |||
Released | October 1970 | |||
Format | 45 rpm, 12" 45 rpm | |||
Recorded | 1970 | |||
Genre | Country, country pop | |||
Length | 2:55 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Songwriter(s) | Joe South | |||
Producer(s) | Glenn Sutton | |||
Lynn Anderson singles chronology | ||||
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"(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden" | ||||
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Single by Martina McBride | ||||
from the album Timeless | ||||
Released | August 1, 2005 | |||
Recorded | 2005 | |||
Genre | Country | |||
Length | 3:15 | |||
Label | RCA Nashville | |||
Songwriter(s) | Joe South | |||
Producer(s) | Martina McBride | |||
Martina McBride singles chronology | ||||
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"Rose Garden" (also known and covered as "(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden") is a song written by Joe South, best known as recorded by country music singer Lynn Anderson, and first released by Billy Joe Royal in 1967. Her October 1970 release topped the U.S. Billboard country chart for five weeks, reached No. 3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop chart, and hit number one on both Cash Box's and Record World's pop and country singles charts. The song was also a major pop hit internationally, topping the charts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, and Norway, and reaching the top three in the UK and South Africa.
Anderson's version of "Rose Garden" remains one of the most successful country crossover recordings of all-time.
The Lynn Anderson single was her third release for Columbia Records in 1970, after several years of recording for Chart Records. The single proved to be the first crossover record of her career.
"Rose Garden" was originally an album cut by the song's writer, Joe South, in 1969. Several other male vocalists recorded it on albums including Freddy Weller, Billy Joe Royal, and Dobie Gray and Third Avenue Blues Band, but it was never a hit until Anderson's version. A recording by the girl group The Three Degrees, best known for their 1974 hit "When Will I See You Again", also pre-dated Lynn Anderson's hit version.
Anderson wanted to record the song but her producer (and husband) Glenn Sutton felt it was a "man's song", in part because of the line "I could promise you things like big diamond rings". According to Anderson, Sutton agreed to record the song as a potential album cut when there was time left during one of her scheduled recording sessions. After arranging a more up-tempo, light-hearted melody, Sutton and the studio musicians, which included a mandolin player, as well as a string section, were impressed with the results. Columbia Records' executive Clive Davis was equally impressed and insisted the song be released as a single in both the country and pop markets. Shortly after its breakthrough on American Top 40 radio, the song became an international hit. A cover version released by Sandie Shaw in UK failed to chart, as Anderson's version became a major success there. The song became Anderson's signature tune and one of the biggest hits of the 1970s, in any genre of music. Anderson won a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1971, and Joe South earned two Grammy nominations: "Best Country Song" and "Song of the Year" in the pop field.