Lemon Tree (Will Holt song)
| "Lemon Tree" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Trini Lopez | |
| from the album The Folk Album | |
| Genre | Folk |
| Songwriter(s) | Will Holt |
"Lemon Tree" is a folk song written by Will Holt in the late 1950s. The tune is based on the Brazilian folk song Meu limão, meu limoeiro, arranged by José Carlos Burle in 1937 and made popular by Brazilian singer Wilson Simonal.[1] The song compares love to a lemon tree: "Lemon tree very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet, but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat."
The song has been recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary, Chad & Jeremy, The Kingston Trio, The Seekers, Bob Marley and The Wailers, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Sandie Shaw, and Roger Whittaker. In 1965, Trini Lopez recorded the most successful version of the song which hit number twenty on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the Billboard Middle Road Singles chart.[2][3]
A reference is made to the song in the Seinfeld episode ‘The Phone Message’ (Season 2, Episode 4, 17:38). Another television reference has the character Jefferson singing it during a dream sequence in the Married With Children episode ‘Lookin' for a Desk in All the Wrong Places’(Season 6, Episode 5, 17:00).
References
- ↑ Meu limão, meu limoeiro - MPB CIFRANTIGA
- ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 149.
- ↑ "Middle-Road Singles", Billboard, February 20, 1965. p. 46