(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden – Along with the sunshine, there’s gotta be a little rain sometime. #MusicisLife #TedTocksCovers #JoeSouth #LynnAnderson #BillyJoeRoyal

Back in February I featured a song called ‘Games People Play’ by Joe South. Today I will feature another song by this singer songwriter that became a massive crossover hit in 1970. ‘(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden’ was written by South in 1966/7 and ‘rose’ to prominence when singer Lynn Anderson recorded it in 1970. I want to share a little bit about Joe South because he was pretty prolific, and in my opinion he should be better known.

Joe South’s career began in 1958 with a novelty song that I suspect many are familiar with; ‘The Purple People Eater’ Meets the Witch Doctor’. From that point he played and wrote with the likes of Ray Stevens and Jerry Reed. He played guitar on Bob Dylan’s ‘Blonde on Blonde’ album, Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Sound of Silence’ and Aretha Franklin’s ‘Chain of Fools’. Some of you may know the song ‘Down in the Boondocks’? Yep…Joe South. He even wrote ‘Hush’ which was a hit for Deep Purple early in their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career. Joe South won two Grammy Awards for ‘Games People Play’ in 1970. It is a song that is still lauded for its social commentary. Today’s song won Lynn Anderson a Grammy for Female Vocalist, and South earned two nominations but did not win. His songs have been recorded by numerous artists throughout the years including: Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, Waylon Jennings and The Georgia Satellites. Joe South’s life was bittersweet though. Tragically, his brother, Tommy committed suicide in 1971. The two were extremely close. Tommy was the drummer in his backing band. Joe South never really got over it. He became clinically depressed and turned to drugs as a form of solace which created an endless loop of issues for years. He blamed himself for his brother’s death. Sadly, Joe South died on this day in 2012.

Speaking of the cover version of this song, it should be mentioned that it was first released by Billy Joe Royal in 1967. It was when Lynn Anderson recorded it in 1970 that it rose to prominence. Ironically, her husband and producer, Glen Sutton felt it was a man’s song and tried to talk her out of it. He didn’t like the line “I could promise you things like big diamond rings.” It wasn’t until they had some spare studio time and came up with a more up tempo version that he relented, and the recording that resulted impressed well known Columbia Records executive Clive Davis. Davis insisted the song be released as a single and the result was pure gold. For Anderson’s part, she is just kind of humble.

I believe that ‘Rose Garden’ was released at the right time. People were trying to recover from the Vietnam years. The message in the song – that if you just take hold of life and go ahead, you can make something out of nothing – people just took to that.

Lynn Anderson

Anderson would go on to record various versions of the song through the years, including a Bluegrass rendition in 2004 that gained her another Grammy nomination.

Here is Billy Joe Royal doing Rose Garden. I kind of did today’s post backwards by featuring the cover first and then the original, but it just felt right. Creative license I suppose.

Have a good day.

Remember,

Along with the sunshine
There’s gotta be a little rain sometime

Joe South

Thanks for the advice Joe!