Bed of Rose's

{{for-multi|the album|Bed of Rose's (album)|similarly titled songs|Bed of roses (disambiguation)}} {{More citations needed|date=December 2009}} {{Infobox song | name = Bed of Rose's | cover = StatlersBedofRoses.jpg | alt = | type = single | artist = the Statler Brothers | album = Bed of Rose's | B-side = Last Goodbye | released = October 1970 | format = | recorded = 1970 | studio = | venue = | genre = Country | length = 2:28 | label = Mercury 73141 | writer = Harold Reid | producer = Jerry Kennedy | prev_title = I'm the Boy | prev_year = 1969 | next_title = New York City | next_year = 1971 }} "'''Bed of Rose's'''" is a song written by Harold Reid, and recorded by American country music group the Statler Brothers. 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'' Hot Country Singles chart, peaking at number nine.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition|last=Whitburn|first=Joel|author-link=Joel Whitburn|year=2004|publisher=Record Research|page=330}}</ref> 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 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", 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) 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 of the nominally Christian 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== {|class="wikitable sortable" !align="left"|Chart (1970–1971) !align="center"|Peak<br />position |- |Australia (Kent Music Report)<ref name=aus>{{cite book|last=Kent|first=David|author-link=David Kent (historian)|title=Australian Chart Book 1970–1992|edition=illustrated|publisher=Australian Chart Book|location=St Ives, N.S.W.|year=1993|isbn=0-646-11917-6|page=291}}</ref> | style="text-align:center;"|33 |- |align="left"|Canadian ''RPM'' Country Tracks |align="center"|3 |- |align="left"|Canadian ''RPM'' Top Singles |align="center"|86 |- |New Zealand (Listener)<ref>https://www.flavourofnz.co.nz/index.php?qpageID=search%20listener&qsongid=3913#n_view_location search Listener</ref> |align="center"|14 |- {{single chart|Billboardcountrysongs|9|artist=The Statler Brothers}} |- {{single chart|Billboardhot100|58|artist=The Statler Brothers}} |}

==References== {{reflist}}

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