Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Green green grass of home - On ihmeen hyvä tulla kotiin

Lasse Mårtensson (see previous entry) recorded "On ihmeen hyvä tulla kotiin" (It's wonderfully good to come home) in the last days of 1966. He also wrote the Finnish lyrics, telling the story of a prisoner dreaming about his home-coming (similar theme as in the original song). It became a sizeable hit for him in 1967. The original was a country & western tune "Green Green Grass Of Home" composed by an American songwriter Claude "Curly" Putman. It was recorded by many, but became a massive worldwide hit when sung by Tom Jones in 1966. The first recording in 1965 was done by country & western singer Johnny Darrell. He established a trend of recording "lyrically adventurous" songs that would later become big hits for other artists. These were, in addition to "Green Grass", "Ruby (Don't Take Your Love to Town)" and "The Son of Hickory Holler's Tramp". How unlucky a man ...

Here's the pair:

No comments: