Flowers on the Wall explained
| Flowers on the Wall |
| Cover: | Flowers_on_the_Wall_-_The_Statler_Brothers.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | The Statler Brothers |
| Album: | Flowers on the Wall |
| B-Side: | Billy Christian |
| Released: | June 14, 1965 |
| Recorded: | March 13, 1965 |
| Studio: | Columbia, Nashville |
| Genre: | Country |
| Length: | 2:19 |
| Label: | Columbia 43315 |
| Producer: | Don Law and Frank Jones |
| Prev Title: | Your Foolish Game |
| Prev Year: | 1964 |
| Next Title: | My Darling Hildegarde |
| Next Year: | 1966 |
"Flowers on the Wall" is a song originally recorded by American country music group The Statler Brothers. Written and composed by Lew DeWitt, the group's original tenor vocalist, the song peaked in popularity in January 1966, spending four weeks at number two on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart, and reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The song won the 1966 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary (R&R) Performance - Group (Vocal or Instrumental).[1]
The Statler Brothers re-recorded the song in 1975 for their first greatest-hits album for Mercury Records, The Best of The Statler Brothers.
Critical reception
In 2024, Rolling Stone ranked the song at #116 on its 200 Greatest Country Songs of All Time ranking.[2]
Charts
| Chart (1965–66) | Peak
position |
|---|
| Canada RPM Top Singles[3] | 1 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart[4] | 2 |
| South Africa (Springbok)[5] | 7 |
| UK Singles Chart[6] | 38 |
|
Eric Heatherly version
Eric Heatherly recorded the song in 2000 for his debut album, Swimming in Champagne. Released as his debut single, Heatherly's rendition reached number six on the Hot Country Songs chart and number 50 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Charts
Year-end charts
In popular culture
- The song (its 1975 version) is used in the soundtrack to the 1994 film Pulp Fiction.[8] In the film, Bruce Willis's character sings along to the line, "smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo" as he is driving.
- The song is also referenced in the 1995 film Die Hard with a Vengeance where Bruce Willis's character says he was "working on a nice fat suspension, smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo" .
- Kurt Vonnegut quotes the song's complete lyrics in his 1981 book Palm Sunday, calling the song "yet another great contemporary poem by the Statler Brothers" and using it to describe "the present condition" of an American man who had recently departed his family. "It is not a poem of escape or rebirth. It is a poem about the end of a man's usefulness", he adds.
- It is the theme song of the radio series Linda Smith's A Brief History of Timewasting.[9]
- The Muppets covered the song in 2015, sung by a group of rats called 'The Ratler Brothers'. The music video has Bunsen Honeydew testing an anti-insomnia sleep machine on Beaker to counteract the effects of all the coffee he drank, but it doesn't work. The chorus lyrics removed the reference to smoking and changed to match Beaker's antics until his chemicals explode and Bunsen finally gets to sleep.
Further reading
- Whitburn, Joel, Top Country Songs: 1944-2005 (2006)
External links
Notes and References
- Web site: 8th Annual GRAMMY Awards1965 GRAMMYsGRAMMY.com . 2021-03-30 . 2020-06-13 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200613035057/https://www.grammy.com/grammys/awards/8th-annual-grammy-awards-1965 . dead .
- The 200 Greatest Country Songs of All Time. Rolling Stone. May 24, 2014.
- http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/rpm/Pages/image.aspx?Image=nlc008388.5670&URLjpg=http%3a%2f%2fwww.collectionscanada.gc.ca%2fobj%2f028020%2ff4%2fnlc008388.5670.gif&Ecopy=nlc008388.5670 RPM Top Singles, March 1, 1966
- http://www.flavourofnz.co.nz/index.php?qpageID=Lever%20hit%20parades&qyear=1966&qmonth=Feb&qweek=24-Feb-1966#n_view_location Flavour of New Zealand, 24 February 1966
- Web site: SA Charts 1965–March 1989. 5 September 2018.
- Web site: officialcharts.com. officialcharts.com. July 28, 2023.
- Best of 2000: Country Songs . . . 2000 . August 15, 2012.
- Surf Music and Seventies Soul: The Songs of 'Pulp Fiction' . . 21 May 2014 . 8 October 2019.
- https://www.wideopencountry.com/country-classics-revisited-the-statler-brothers-make-boredom-fun-in-flowers-on-the-wall/ Country Classics Revisted: The Statler Brothers Make Boredom Fun in 'Flowers on the Wall'
