"Eleven Roses" is a song written by

Lamar Morris Lamar Morris (September 30, 1938 – June 1, 2023) was an American country music singer and musician. Between 1966 and 1973, he was a solo artist on the MGM Records label, charting in the Top 40 of Hot Country Songs with "If You Love Me", which ...

and

Darrell McCall Darrell McCall (born April 30, 1940) is a country music performer, known for his honky tonk and traditional country musical style at the height of his career in the 1960s, and his return to popularity during the Outlaw country era in the late 1 ...

and recorded by American musician

Hank Williams Jr. Randall Hank Williams (born May 26, 1949), known professionally as Hank Williams Jr. or Bocephus, is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His musical style is often considered a blend of southern rock, blues, and country. He is the son of ...

It was released in March 1972 as the only single and title track from the album of the same name. The song was Williams' first number one, as solo artist, on the ''Billboard magazine''

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 July 1972, spending two weeks atop the chart. The song spent 14 weeks on the Hot Country Singles chart's top 40.

Content

The song—recorded in the

countrypolitan The Nashville Sound originated during the mid-1950s as a subgenre of American country music, replacing the chart dominance of the rough Honky tonk, honky tonk music, which was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s, with "smooth strings and choruse ...

vein, and much different than Williams' later recordings—is a ballad about a man who gives his girlfriend a bouquet of 11 roses. The boyfriend, apparently repentant and remorseful for wrongs that he did to her ("''after what I've done you may not keep my roses''"), then asks her to look into the mirror while clutching the bouquet, hoping that she'll find that "the 12th rose will be staring back at you."

Charts

References

1972 singles 1972 songs Hank Williams Jr. songs MGM Records singles {{1970s-country-song-stub