ROSE GARDEN
Joe South  1969

as rec by Billie Joe Sears

also rec by -
Joe South '69
Lynn Anderson '70
k d lang & The Recliners '87
Martina McBride 2005
Carol Burnett
Glen Campbell
Ray Conniff & nhis Orch
Percy Faith his Orch
Norma Jean
Loretta Lynn
Jim Nabors
Dinah Shore
The Three Degrees
Freddie Weller
Kitty Wells
Dottie West
Andy Williams


I beg your pardon,
I never promised you a rose garden!
Along with the sunshine,
There's gotta be a little rain sometime!

When you take you gotta give,
So live and let live,
Or let go, wo-wo-wo!
I beg your pardon,
I never promised you a rose garden!

I could promise you things
Like big diamond rings,
But you don't find roses growin'
On tops of clover,
So you better think it over!

When it's sweet-talkin' you
Could make it come true,
I would give you the world right now
On a silver platter,
But what would it matter?

So smile for a while and let's be jolly,
Love shouldn't be so melancholy!
Come along and share the good things while we can!

I beg your pardon,
I never promised you a rose garden!
Along with the sunshine,
There's gotta be a little rain sometime!

I beg your pardon,
I never promised you a rose garden!

I could sing you a tune
That promised you the moon,
But if that's what it takes to hold you,
I'd just as soon let you go,
But there's one thing I want you to know;

You'd better look before you leap,
Still waters run deep,
And there won't always bev someone there
To hold you out,
And you know what I'm talking about!


So smile for a while and let's be jolly,
Love shouldn't be so melancholy!
Come along and share the good things while we can!

I beg your pardon,
I never promised you a rose garden!
Oh,I beg your pardon,
I never promised you a rose garden!



(Transcribed by Peter Akers - February 2012)