TOM JONES - Green Green Grass Of Home

The old home town looks the same
As I step down from the train
And there to greet me are my mamma and my poppa
Down the road I look,
and there runs Mary
Hair of gold, lips like cherries
It's good to touch the green, green grass of home

Chorus
Yes, they'll all come to meet me
Arms a-reachin', smilin' sweetly
It's good to touch the green, green grass of home

The old house is still standin
Though the paint is cracked and dry
And there's that old oak tree
That I used to play in
Down the lane I'll walk with my sweet Mary
Hair of gold and lips like cherries
It's good to touch the green, green grass of home

(Chorus) Yes, they'll all come to meet me
Arms a-reachin', smilin' sweetly
It's good to touch the green, green grass of home

Then I awake and look around me
At the four grey walls that surround me
And I realize that I was only dreaming
For there's a guard and a sad old padre
Arm in arm we'll walk at daybreak
And at last I'll touch the green green grass of home

(Chorus) Yes, they'll all come to meet me
Arms a-reachin', smilin' sweetly
It's good to touch the 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"Green, Green Grass of Home", written by Claude "Curly" Putman Jr., is a country song originally made popular by Porter Wagoner in 1964 and Bobby Bare in 1965. It was sung later by Tom Jones in 1966 when it reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 3 December staying there for a total of seven weeks.[1] It had also been recorded the previous year, 1965, by Jerry Lee Lewis, and included on his album "Country Songs For City Folks" (later re-issued as "All Country"), and Jones learned the song from Lewis's version. 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 Charley Pride on his 1966 album Country, by Johnny Cash on his 1968 Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison album, by Merle Haggard on his 1968 album "Mama Tried", by Hank Snow on his 1968 album Hits, Hits and More Hits, by Joan Baez on her 1969 album David's Album, by Pavel Novak - Czech Singer in 1968, by Stompin' Tom Connors on his album Stompin' Tom Connors, 'LIVE' at the Horseshoe in 1971, by Elvis Presley in 1975 on his album Today, and also by Kenny Rogers on his self-titled album, Kenny Rogers, in 1977. Trini Lopez included the song on his Reprise Records album Trini Country (Reprise 6300)
With lyrics in Swedish by Stig Anderson as "En sång en gång för längese'n", both Björn Ulvaeus's Hootenanny Singers and Jan Malmsjö had each 1967 Svensktoppen hit with the song, for six respectively 33 weeks [2]. This language version was also recorded by Lotta Engberg in 1997. With lyrics in Portuguese by Geraldo Figueiredo as "Os Verdes Campos da Minha Terra", it was recorded in Brazil by Agnaldo Timóteo (1967), Belmonte and Amaraí (1968), Roberto Leal, and others. The song was also recorded with lyrics in Serbian by Riblja Čorba as "Zelena trava doma mog", in 1993. Jussi Raittinen has made the song in Finnish, under name "On ihmeen hyvä kotiin tulla taas".
Katherine Jenkins released the song as a single on 20 November 2006, and it was included on her Serenade album during the same year. A live version was included on the single, which was recorded at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, just prior to the Australia versus Wales Rugby match on 4 November 2006.
In February 2009 Tom Jones performed the song live on a special Take-Away Show with Vincent Moon, along with If He Should Ever Leave You and We Got Love live in front of a camera in a hotel room in New York[3].
There is a Japanese version of the song entitled "思い出のグリーングラス" (Omoide no GURIINGURASU) by 森山良子 (Ryōko Moriyama).
In September 2006 Jones performed the song as a duet with Jerry Lee Lewis during the taping of the latter's "Last Man Standing" TV special in New York City, and credited Lewis with providing the inspiration behind his own recording. Tom Jones sung the song on the 2009/10 edition of Jool's Annual Hootenanny on 1st January 2010.

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The lyrics

A man returns to his childhood home; it seems that this is his first visit home since leaving in his youth. When he steps down from the train, his parents are there to greet him, and his beloved, Mary, comes running to join them. All is welcome and peace; all come to meet him with "arms reaching, smiling sweetly." With Mary the man strolls at ease among the monuments of his childhood, including "the old oak tree that I used to play on." It is "good to touch the green, green grass of home." Yet the music and the words are full of foreshadowing, strongly suggestive of mourning.
Abruptly, the man switches from song to speech as he 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." He is, indeed, on death row. As the singing resumes, we learn that the man is waking on the day of his scheduled execution ("there's a guard, and there's a sad old padre...on and on [or "arm in arm"] we'll walk at daybreak"), and he will return home only to be 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...a sad old padre" to "a garden and a sad old partridge."
The Joan Baez version ends: "Yes, we'll all be together in the shade of the old oak tree / When we meet beneath the green, green grass of home."