Thanks again to all my friends who sent along their well-wishes for my recover from a recent incident on the dog trail. Seems it is still, quite literally, a dog-eat-dog world out there.
You can blame Paul Olguin if this week's selection causes you undue grief (I don't see how it could, but I was wrong once before) as Paul brought up the Tom Jones vs Engelbert Humperdink debate a few weeks back. I think Engelbert had a tough career path to travel following TJ around, not an easy thing. But when you review their respective catalogs of work, Paul is right, you have to give the nod to the great one, Tom Jones.
If we choose to validate a song's merit by the number of artists that cover it, then this simple country ballad would rank very high with versions by Elvis, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Nana Mouskouri, Trini Lopez, and Gram Parsons, while the Wikipedia page lists translated hit versions in Korean, Portuguese, Japanese, Serbian, and Swedish, to name just a few.
With a theme everyone can relate to (homesickness), a simple story with a sad twist for an ending, and a melody that fits easily enough in your back pocket on the way to the Karaoke bar, "The Green Green Grass of Home" is a great song, and the version by Tom Jones is a wonderful performance. Let's face it; any song that can be sung in a rhinestone suit (Porter Wagner) or a tuxedo (Tom Jones) has got to be a great one.
Enjoy.
-KO
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