Rose Garden?

[WildHearted]

Does anyone know if there's any sort of correlation between the song Rose Garden by Joe South (or as made popular by Lynn Anderson in 1970) and Stevie's Rose Garden, inspiration wise? I know Stevie has said that she wrote it when she was 16, but there's similar titles, there's the similar theme and lyrics "I never promised you a rose garden" - "You never promised me a rose garden", "I could promise you things like big diamond rings" - "You never promised me a ring made out of diamonds" ... so I just wasn't sure.

I mainly ask because my Grandfather was a musician out of Atlanta who had a couple of a minutely successful song but never made it big, and part of my families folklore is that he actually wrote "Rose Garden" or at least an early incarnation of it, and Joe South (who he ran in the same circles with) stole it from him and he could never prove that he had come up with it. Now, obviously I wasn't alive then, and my grandfather isn't alive now, but my Grandma swears up and down that she knows he wrote it because she was there, and she'll go on ranting for days about it.

I was just reminded of this a few days ago when I played a song I wrote for my Grandma and she started freaking out about me needing to get it copyrighted so it didn't happen to me, lmao.

[PenguinHead]

It's fairly clear that there is a correlation.

'Rose Garden' is a term applied to many things - parks, arenas, stores etc... Until you pointed it out, I never made the connection between Stevie's 'Rose Garden', and the prior hit song 'You Never Promised Me a Rose Garden.'

Obviously Stevie was "channeling" the spirit of that song, whether she knew it or not.

[skuncles]

Well like the Joe South song I believe Stevie's version is also inspired at least title wise by the 1964 book "I Never Promised You A Rose Garden". Stevie was 16 in 1964 so the timeline is correct. The Joe South song was published in 1969 so one can assume that Stevie's song came first although not published until way later.

[iamnotafraid]

Now, obviously I wasn't alive then...


Mind your manners child!
I was around back then.
Just old enough to like that
song. I remember seeing
Lynn Anderson on TV singing.
That song was a huge hit.

Stevie's song... well not so much.
On a positive note, Stevie's Rose
Garden is easy to play on guitar.

[icinglover1995]

She even said in an interview "I wrote a song called You Never Promised Me A Rose Garden", like that was the name of it. And what if she shortened it because of the similar names?