Member-only story
Plethora of Pop’s Rate-A-Record
Whose Apples Were They?
And were they in our own back yards in ‘68?
If you were to “Reach Out of the Darkness” in 1968, whose green apple tree might you touch? Roger Miller’s? OC Smith’s? Patti Page’s?
“According to Buzz Cason, who partnered Bobby Russell in the Nashville-based Rising Sons music publishing firm, Russell wrote both the songs “Honey” (a #1 hit for Bobby Goldsboro in 1968) and “Little Green Apples” as “an experiment in composing”, anticipating a potential market for true-to-life story songs…with more ‘meat’ in the lyrics [than was] standard” for current hits” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Green_Apples).
“Little Green Apples” was recorded by so many artists in 1968–9 that you’d be forgiven for believing it was the #1 song of the year on some chart, for sure. But which version do you prefer?