"Paper Rosie" is a song written and originally recorded by Canadian

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, ...

artist

Dallas Harms Dallas Harms (July 18, 1935 – October 12, 2019) was a Canadian country music singer-songwriter. Twenty of Harms' singles made the ''RPM'' Country Tracks charts, including the number one single " Honky Tonkin' (All Night Long)". Harms was induc ...

. Harms' version peaked at number 21 on the ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'' Country Tracks chart in 1975. The song was later covered by American country music artist

Gene Watson Gary Gene Watson (born October 11, 1943) is an American country music singer. He is most famous for his 1975 hit "Love in the Hot Afternoon," his 1981 No. 1 hit " Fourteen Carat Mind," and his signature 1979 song "Farewell Party." Watson's lo ...

. Watson's version released on January 22, 1977 as the first (and only) single and from his album ''Paper Rosie''. Watson's version peaked at No. 3 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

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 in the spring of 1977. It stayed at No. 3 for a total of 3 weeks of the 17 weeks it was on the chart. It also reached number 1 on the ''RPM'' Country Tracks chart in Canada.

Content

The song is set at a roadside tavern and is told from the

viewpoint Viewpoint may refer to: * Scenic viewpoint, a high place where people can gather to view scenery In computing * Viewpoint model, a computer science technique for making complex systems more comprehensible to human engineers * Viewpoint Corporat ...

of a young man who buys a paper rose from an elderly female vendor. Shortly thereafter, he hears the ringing of church bells and choir voices and realizes a funeral is taking place nearby. When he hears the choir singing "Paper Rosie," he realizes that the funeral is for the woman who'd just sold him the rose. The song suggests that it was actually the spirit of the woman who sold him the paper flower.

Chart performance

Dallas Harms

Gene Watson

Year-end charts

References

1975 singles 1977 singles 1975 songs Dallas Harms songs Gene Watson songs Capitol Records singles {{1970s-country-song-stub