"Bed of Rose's" is a song written by Harold Reid, and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

group

the Statler Brothers The Statler Brothers (sometimes simply referred to as The Statlers) were an American country music, gospel, and vocal group from Staunton, Virginia. The quartet was formed in 1955 performing locally, and from 1964 to 1972, they sang as opening a ...

. It was released in October 1970 as the first single and title track from the album '' Bed of Rose's''. The song reached its popularity peak in the winter of 1971, eventually reaching the Top 10 of 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 advertis ...

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 along with digital sales and streaming. ...

chart, peaking at number nine. It also reached #58 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and #51 on the Australian Singles Chart (''Go-Set''). A cover version by Irish singer/songwriter Daniel O'Donnell was also recorded for his 1990 album ''Daniel O'Donnell - Favourites''.

Tanya Tucker Tanya Denise Tucker (born October 10, 1958) is an American country music singer and songwriter who had her first hit, "Delta Dawn", in 1972 at the age of 13. During her career Tucker became one of the few child performers to mature into adulthood ...

also recorded a slightly modified version of it, included on her 1974 Columbia album, '' Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone),'' and again for ''The Best Of Tanya Tucker,'' released in 1982 under MCA records.

Content

The title of "Bed of Rose's" is, like some of the other Statler Brothers' works, a play on words - in this case on the common English idiom "

bed of roses Bed of roses is an English expression that represents a carefree life. This idiomatic expression is still popular. In the thirteenth-century work Le Roman de la Rose (called "The French Iliad" in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable), a L ...

", which means an easy and pleasant life. The song is both a challenge of narrow-minded religion and moralism, and a gentle celebration of love. A young orphaned man in a small town (possibly modeled after the Statlers' hometown of Staunton,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

) has for some reason become shunned by the "polite" members of society, and is forced to beg in the streets. His life improves when a streetwalker named Rose, nearly twice his age, takes him in; he becomes her lover. The song juxtaposes the

hypocrisy Hypocrisy is the practice of feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not. The word "hypocrisy" entered the English language ''c.'' 1200 with the meaning "the sin of pretending to virtue or goodness". Today, "hypocrisy" ofte ...

of the nominally

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

townspeople who would "...go to church but left me in the street" and their envy of Rose who "managed a late evening business / like most of the town wished they could do", with the care and tender love that evolves between the two outcasts.

Chart performance

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bed Of Roses 1970 singles The Statler Brothers songs Song recordings produced by Jerry Kennedy Songs written by Harold Reid Mercury Records singles 1970 songs