“Green, Green Grass of Home”, written by Claude “Curly” Putman, Jr. and first recorded by singer Johnny Darrell, is a country song originally made popular by Porter Wagoner in 1965 and Bobby Bare in 1965.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. 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 by many such as Charley Pride, on his 1966 album Country, Johnny Cash on his 1968 album Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, Merle Haggard on his 1968 album “Mama Tried”, Hank Snow on his 1968 album Hits, Hits, and more Hits, Joan Baez on her 1969 album David’s Album, Trini Lopez on Welcome to Trini Country, Pavel Novak – Czech Singer in 1968, Stompin’ Tom Connors on his album Stompin’ Tom Connors, ‘LIVE’ at the Horseshoe in 1971, Elvis Presley in 1975 on his album Today, and Kenny Rogers on his self-titled album, Kenny Rogers, in 1977. The song was also recorded by Gram Parsons and The Flying Burrito Brothers but was not released until 1976, on Sleepless Nights, a posthumous, Gram Parsons compilation album. (Parson’s friend Clarence White and his band, the short-lived Nashville West, released yet another version of the song.) The song is considered a country music standard.

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. 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. In 1978, this song was covered by Filipino singer Sam Sorono (1950–2008) on his Sings Tom Jones’ Greatest Hits LP album with EMI Records. The song was also recorded with lyrics in Serbian by Riblja Čorba as “Zelena trava doma mog”, in 1993. In Czechoslovakia Dušan Grúň recorded it in Slovak language as Starý rodný dom (Old Natal House) in 1967. Jussi Raittinen has made the song in Finnish, under name “On ihmeen hyvä kotiin tulla taas”. In 2000, the Norwegian rock band Jetsurfers released a rock version of the song, on their debut album.

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.

The late Singaporean singer/songwriter/lyricist Su Yin (舒雲) covered this song in Mandarin Chinese language with Chinese lyrics written by himself and given the title name of 一片青青的草地, appearing on his LP album 黃昏放牛＊一片青青的草地, released by EMI Columbia Records in 1967.

Renowned Korean folk singer (Jo Young Nam) did a cover of the song, with translated title and lyrics, called 고향의 푸른 잔디 (Gohyang-ui pooreun jandhi).

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 Hong Kong, this song was covered by female singer/organist Ma Chia Nar (馬嘉娜), on her LP album For Mama．There Goes My Everything with the lcoal Life Records in 1973. Also, another Hong Kong female singer May Cheng (鄭寶雯) covered the song in Cantonese language with Chinese lyrics written by Cheng Kwok Kong (鄭國江) and given the title name of 故園芳草綠, on her LP album 柔情常在, released by the local Bang Bang Records in 1979.

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 1 January 2010.

By Tom Jones

Lyrics