Flowers on the Wall

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"Flowers on the Wall" is a song originally recorded by American country music group The Statler Brothers. Written and composed by Lew DeWitt, the group's original tenor vocalist, the song peaked in popularity in January 1966, spending four weeks at number two on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart, and reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The song won the 1966 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary (R&R) Performance - Group (Vocal or Instrumental).[1]

The Statler Brothers re-recorded the song in 1975 for their first greatest-hits album for Mercury Records, The Best of The Statler Brothers.

Critical reception

In 2024, Rolling Stone ranked the song at #116 on its 200 Greatest Country Songs of All Time ranking.[2]

Charts

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Chart (1965–1966) Peak
position
Canada RPM Top Singles[3] 1
New Zealand Singles Chart[4] 2
South Africa (Springbok)[5] 7
UK Singles Chart[6] 38

Eric Heatherly version

Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Eric Heatherly recorded the song in 2000 for his debut album, Swimming in Champagne. Released as his debut single, Heatherly's rendition reached number six on the Hot Country Songs chart and number 50 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Charts

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Chart (2000) Peak
position

Year-end charts

Chart (2000) Position
US Country Songs (Billboard)[7] 30

In popular culture

  • The song (its 1975 version) is used in the soundtrack to the 1994 film Pulp Fiction.[8] In the film, Bruce Willis's character sings along to the line, "smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo" as he is driving.
  • The song is also referenced in the 1995 film Die Hard with a Vengeance where Bruce Willis's character says he was "working on a nice fat suspension, smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo" .
  • Kurt Vonnegut 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.
  • It is the theme song of the radio series Linda Smith's A Brief History of Timewasting.[9]
  • The Muppets covered the song in 2015, sung by a group of rats called 'The Ratler Brothers'. The music video has Bunsen Honeydew testing an anti-insomnia sleep machine on Beaker to counteract the effects of all the coffee he drank, but it doesn't work. The chorus lyrics removed the reference to smoking and changed to match Beaker's antics until his chemicals explode and he finally gets to sleep.
  • An instrumental version was used for the long-running TVNZ sheepdog trialling TV series A Dog's Show

References

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  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ RPM Top Singles, March 1, 1966
  4. ↑ Flavour of New Zealand, 24 February 1966
  5. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Country Classics Revisted: The Statler Brothers Make Boredom Fun in 'Flowers on the Wall'

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Further reading

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

External links

Template:The Statler Brothers

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