It Was 50 Years Ago Today: “Green, Green Grass of Home” by Tom Jones
December 13, 1966
“Green, Green Grass of Home” by Tom Jones
#1 on the Record Retailer Singles Chart (UK), December 1, 1966 – January 18, 1967
When the young Welsh singer Tom Jones burst onto the scene with his 1965 hit “It’s Not Unusual,” he represented a hip, Swinging London sort of figure — not exactly a rock star, but with a similar youth appeal. He racked up a rapid-fire string of hits in just over a year’s time, including “What’s New, Pussycat?” and the James Bond theme “Thunderball.”
At the same time, however, Jones was acutely aware that he needed to expand his sound to ensure he wouldn’t end up a flavor of the month — and that, with his brash baritone and overtly sexy (yet tongue-in-cheek) image, he could easily cross over into a role as a more traditional entertainer type.
Jones discovered the song that would give him this boost while traveling in New York. There, he picked up the latest album by fallen rock idol Jerry Lee Lewis. Country Songs for City Folks was one of Lewis’s early attempts to transition from the rock ‘n’ roll world that had left him behind to a potential long-term career in the more accepting field of country music. On the 1965 LP, Lewis covered several recent country hits, but the standout caught Jones’s ear.
“Green, Green Grass of Home” was an early songwriting success for Curly Putnam whose other credits include Dolly Parton’s “Dumb Blonde” (her first hit), Tammy Wynette’s “D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” and George Jones’s “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” (Macca fans may also know him as Claude Putnam, Jr., the namesake of “Junior’s Farm.”) Inspired by a scene in the 1950 film
Inspired by a scene in the 1950 film The Asphalt Jungle, Putnam crafted “Green, Green Grass of Home” from the perspective of a man dreaming of returning to the idyllic place he grew up, greeted by his parents and a beautiful girl named Mary, with “hair of gold and lips like cherries.”
On the surface, “Green, Green Grass of Home” seems like a universal, if somewhat banal, paean to the feeling of returning to old places and being reunited with loved ones after spending a long time apart. Like many great country songs, however, it has a twist.
The third verse reveals why the narrator’s fantasy can never come true: he is a prisoner on Death Row who will be executed at daybreak. He knows he’ll soon be returning to the “green, green grass of home,” but only to be buried beneath it.
“Green, Green Grass of Home” was originally recorded by Johnny Darrell in 1965, but Porter Wagoner made it a #4 country chart hit the same year. Wagoner was never above indulging in a little mawkishness, but his version of the song is the model of restraint next to Jones’s interpretation. Jones wrings every ounce of pathos from the song, injecting a sob into every phrase. (Perhaps his capital crime was abuse of melisma.)
Yet while Wagoner’s rendition has a plainspoken grace, and Lewis seems like the only one of the three singers who genuinely understands the narrator’s tormented soul, Jones brings a degree of catharsis. Sometimes you need to let your emotions be shamelessly played.
The great pop audience, never much for subtlety, rewarded Jones with the career jolt he desired. “Green, Green Grass of Home” became his second UK #1, a respectable US hit at #11, and an international success. Jones graduated from routine appearances in the UK Top 40 to featuring almost exclusively in the Top 10, with such favorites as “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” and “Delilah” stopping only one spot short of the top.
Jones may now be best known for his over-the-top, sex-symbol persona, but “Green, Green Grass of Home” shows him striving for more emotional resonance — even if it’s as vigorously performed as one of his Vegas shows.
It Was 50 Years Ago Today examines a song, album, movie, or book that was #1 on the charts exactly half a century ago.
