Green, Green Grass of Home

Green, Green Grass of Home is a country and popular song. Written by Curly Putman in 1965, it would become a hit for Porter Wagoner that year, reaching #4 on the country charts. Later recorded by Bobby Bare and Jerry Lee Lewis, the Lewis version would be heard by Welsh crooner Tom Jones, who would record it himself, making it a #1 hit for seven weeks on the pop charts in 1966.

Sung in first person, the first two verses tell of the singer seemingly returning to his childhood home for the first time since his youth. He is warmly greeted by his parents and his sweetheart "Mary", with whom he strolls among the monuments of his childhood, notably an old oak tree on which he used to play.

The third verse abruptly changes to spoken word recitation: the singer was only dreaming. He wakes up and sees the "four grey walls" of his prison cell; soon he will be accompanied by a guard and a priest to his pending execution at daybreak (the reason for his execution is not given). He will return to the "green, green grass of home" - only when his remains are buried underneath the old oak tree.

Kenny Rogers' song "Tomb of the Unknown Love" pays homage, in part, to the song, and serves as a possible prequel as to the reason for the execution.