Flowers on the Wall

"Flowers on the Wall"
Single by The Statler Brothers
from the album Flowers on the Wall
B-side "Billy Christian"
Released September 1965 (U.S.)
Format 7"
Recorded March 13, 1965
Genre Country
Length 2:19
Label Columbia 43315
Songwriter(s) Lew DeWitt
Producer(s) Don Law and Frank Jones
The Statler Brothers singles chronology
"Flowers on the Wall"
(1965)		 "The Right One"
(1966)

"Flowers on the Wall" is a song made famous by the country music group The Statler Brothers. Written and composed by the group's original tenor, Lew DeWitt, the song peaked in popularity in January 1966, spending four weeks at No. 2 on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart, and reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song was used in the soundtrack to the 1994 film Pulp Fiction and as the title theme of the 2001-2002 BBC Radio 4 sitcom Linda Smith's A Brief History of Timewasting.

The song won the 1966 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary (R&R) Performance - Group (Vocal or Instrumental).

The Statler Brothers re-recorded the song in 1975 for their first greatest hits album for Mercury Records, The Best of The Statler Brothers. The song is also featured on Nancy Sinatra's album Boots (1967).

Content

The singer assures a concerned neighbor that, even though he rarely, if ever, leaves his home, he leads a full life: counting flowers on the wallpaper, smoking, watching Captain Kangaroo and pretending to go out.

Chart performance

Chart (1965-66) Peak
position
Canada RPM Top Singles[1] 1
New Zealand Singles Chart[2] 2
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[3] 2
US Billboard Hot 100[4] 4
UK Singles Chart 38

Eric Heatherly version

"Flowers on the Wall"
Single by Eric Heatherly
from the album Swimming in Champagne
B-side "Someone Else's Cadillac"
Released February 26, 2000
Format CD single
Genre Country
Length 3:29
Label Mercury
Songwriter(s) Lew DeWitt
Producer(s) Keith Stegall
Eric Heatherly singles chronology
"Flowers on the Wall"
(2000)		 "Swimming in Champagne"
(2000)

Eric Heatherly recorded the song in 2000 on his debut album, Swimming In Champagne. Also released as his debut single, Heatherly's rendition reached No. 6 on the Hot Country Songs charts and No. 50 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Chart history

Chart (2000) Peak
position
Canada Country Tracks (RPM)[5] 3
US Billboard Hot 100[6] 50
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[7] 6

Year-end charts

Chart (2000) Position
US Country Songs (Billboard)[8] 30
  • The song (its 1975 version) is used in the soundtrack to the 1994 film Pulp Fiction.[9] In the film, Bruce Willis's character sings along to the line, "smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo" as he is driving. In the 1995 film Die Hard with a Vengeance, when Willis's character John McClane is describing his suspension from the police force, he says he was "smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo."
  • The song was frequently employed as bumper music on the syndicated radio talk show Coast to Coast AM, particularly in the earlier days when Art Bell was the host.
  • In a publicly released video, Dylan Klebold, one of the two teens who committed the Columbine High School Massacre, was filmed by a friend while driving his car to school at some point prior to the shooting. In the video, they were both listening to "Flowers on the Wall" playing on the radio.
  • Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 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.
  • The Muppets have a YouTube viral video parodying the song in which a band of rats, The Ratler Brothers, sing the song while Beaker struggles with insomnia after being the subject of an experiment that involved consuming a large amount of coffee. Considering the considerable children's interest in the franchise, the line in the chorus "smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo" is changed to other pointless activities.
  • Nancy Sinatra covered the song for her album Boots.
  • An instrumental version of the song was used in the New Zealand TV programme A Dog's Show.[10]
  • Famous trucker/country singer C.W. McCall covered the song in his album C. W. McCall & Co., released in 1979.
  • It is the theme song of the radio series Linda Smith's A Brief History of Timewasting.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ RPM Top Singles, March 1, 1966
  2. ↑ Flavour of New Zealand, 24 February 1966
  3. ↑ "The Statler Brothers Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard.
  4. ↑ "The Statler Brothers Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard.
  5. ↑ "Top RPM Country Tracks: Issue 7185." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. July 10, 2000. Retrieved July 8, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Eric Heatherly Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard.
  7. ↑ "Eric Heatherly Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard.
  8. ↑ "Best of 2000: Country Songs". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. 2000. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Surf Music and Seventies Soul: The Songs of 'Pulp Fiction'". Rolling Stone magazine. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  10. ↑ NZ On Screen: A Dog's Show - 1981 final

Bibliography

  • Whitburn, Joel, Top Country Songs: 1944-2005 (2006)
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