Country Legend Lynn Anderson Dies At 67

Via the Tennessean:

Country singer Lynn Anderson, best known for her classic recording “(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden,” died Thursday night of a heart attack at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She had been hospitalized for pneumonia following a trip to Italy. She was 67 years old. In 1970, Ms. Anderson moved from California to Nashville, and signed with Columbia Records. In October of that year, she released what would become her signature song, and one of country music’s classics. The lilting “(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden,” penned by Joe South, became a worldwide hit with its immediately recognizable intro and catchy lyrics. In the U.S., it spent five weeks atop the country music charts and crossed over to the pop charts as well. The recording also netted Ms. Anderson a Best Female Country Vocal Performance Grammy Award, and in 1971, the Country Music Association named her Female Vocalist of the Year.

Rose Garden will always remind of my dad because he was a Marine Corps recruiter and they used the song in one of their enlistment campaigns near the end of the Vietnam War. Anderson wasn't the first (and was far from the last) artist to cover Rose Garden - I've always been partial to the Three Degrees' version, which predated Anderson's by a few years.