"Blanket on the Ground" is a song written by Roger Bowling, and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer

Billie Jo Spears Billie Jo Spears (born Billie Joe Moore; January 14, 1938 – December 14, 2011) was an American country music singer. She reached the top 10 of the country music chart five times between 1969 and 1977, her biggest being " Blanket on the Ground", ...

. It was released in February 1975 as the second single and title track from the album '' Blanket on the Ground''. Irish born singer Philomena Begley covered the song as the lead single from her 1975 LP of the same name. The single was released on August 4, 1975 in Ireland and August 6, 1975 in the United Kingdom reaching number 1 and number 4 in the UK and Ireland respectively.

Content

The song is sung from the point of view of a middle-aged woman who coaxes her hesitant husband outdoors to make love in the

moonlight Moonlight consists of mostly sunlight (with little earthlight) reflected from the parts of the Moon's surface where the Sun's light strikes. Illumination The intensity of moonlight varies greatly depending on the lunar phase, but even the ful ...

Chart performance

The song reached #1 on

Billboard Magazine ''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music ...

Hot Country Singles Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

chart, and #78 on the

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

pop charts. In the United Kingdom, the song reached #6 on the pop charts.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Philomena Begley version

"Blanket On The Ground" was covered by Country music artist

Philomena Begley Philomena Begley (born 20 October 1942) is a country music singer from Northern Ireland. In 1975, Begley had a hit with her version of the Billie Jo Spears' song Blanket on the Ground reaching higher sales then Spears in both the UK and Irelan ...

as the lead single from her 1975 LP of the same name . The single was released on August 4, 1975 in Ireland and August 6, 1975 in the United Kingdom. The LP was re-released on CD in 1988.

Background

Begley's cover took her to number five in the Irish chart. Spears also released the song in the United Kingdom and in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

at the same time as Begley, but Begley's version received the highest sales, as Spears' version only went to number 11. Begley occasionally performed the song with Spears and later recorded a tribute song to her after the American star's death in 2011. Begley's edition has been re-recorded a number of times since and is featured on her 'Greatest Hits' album.

Chart performance

References

{{authority control 1975 singles 1975 songs Billie Jo Spears songs Songs written by Roger Bowling (songwriter) Song recordings produced by Larry Butler (producer) United Artists Records singles