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Quiz about The Green Green Grass of Home
Quiz about The Green Green Grass of Home

The Green, Green Grass of Home Quiz


This is a Commission 38 Quiz. 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' was a big hit for Tom Jones. This quiz is about the song with a little insight into the singer.

A multiple-choice quiz by 1nn1. Estimated time: 4 mins.
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Author
1nn1
Time
4 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
378,693
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
8 / 10
Plays
515
Awards
Top 5% quiz!
Last 3 plays: Guest 204 (3/10), jogreen (7/10), bigwoo (6/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' was a signature song for Tom Jones. Many thought the song was about Jones singing about his native Wales. Was Tom Jones his real name?


Question 2 of 10
2. 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' was released early in Tom Jones' career. It was his second UK number one hit. What was his first UK number one hit? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. While 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' is always associated with Tom Jones, he wasn't the first person to take it to the top ten of the Country chart. Who was? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' begins as if it was a conventional love song. The protagonist, when he steps off the train to meet his sweetheart, describes her, "Hair of gold and lips like ____". What is the missing word? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. However, as 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' progresses, there is clearly something wrong, as noted by the mournful lyrics and the sudden change from song to speech. What is the protagonist's twist in the song? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. The title of 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' becomes obvious in the last verse. Why? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. While 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' will always be known as Tom Jones' song, some big names have also covered and recorded the song. Which one of the following did not? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' was the UK Charts' number one hit over Christmas. The Christmas before the UK number one over Christmas were both Beatles' songs: 'Day Tripper' and; 'Hello, Goodbye'. Therefore what year was 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' the number one UK hit of Christmas? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. It was a mark of Tom Jones' talent that he was asked to sing a James Bond theme song. Which movie? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. Tom Jones career has spanned over six decades. In 1999, he released 'Reload'. This was a clever marketing ploy containing one original song, one re-working of an original song and the rest were duets with well known stars singing cover versions. Was 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' the one re-worked original song?



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Most Recent Scores
Mar 26 2024 : Guest 204: 3/10
Mar 21 2024 : jogreen: 7/10
Mar 14 2024 : bigwoo: 6/10
Feb 04 2024 : Guest 188: 4/10

Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' was a signature song for Tom Jones. Many thought the song was about Jones singing about his native Wales. Was Tom Jones his real name?

Answer: No

Thomas Jones Woodward was born in Wales on 7 June 1940. Jones was his mother's maiden name. His full name is Sir Thomas Jones Woodward OBE after he received an Order of the British Empire in 1999 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2006.
2. 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' was released early in Tom Jones' career. It was his second UK number one hit. What was his first UK number one hit?

Answer: It's Not Unusual

In 1963, Jones was the lead singer in a rock and roll band called Tommy Scott and the Senators. The group played dance halls in South Wales and recorded demos but had no recording success. Gordon Mills, a London agent saw Jones and his band play. He took him, but not the group, to London, changed his name to Tom Jones (There was a popular UK film called 'Tom Jones' at the time) to find recording success.

It took time but eventually Mills got Jones a contract with Decca in 1964 and his first single, 'Chills and Fever', did not chart.

His second single 'It's Not Unusual' became a number one UK hit, mainly due to the promotion of the song by an offshore pirate radio station.
3. While 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' is always associated with Tom Jones, he wasn't the first person to take it to the top ten of the Country chart. Who was?

Answer: Porter Wagoner

Claude "Curly" Putman, Jr. was an Alabama song writer based in Nashville when he wrote 'The Green, Green Grass of Home'. Johnny Darrell, an American country singer recorded it first but it did not chart. Porter Wagoner recorded it in 1965 where it went to number four on the US Country Chart. Tom Jones found out about it from Jerry Lee Lewis who had recorded it on an album (only) called 'Country Songs For City Folks'.

It was Jones who made it a worldwide hit.
4. 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' begins as if it was a conventional love song. The protagonist, when he steps off the train to meet his sweetheart, describes her, "Hair of gold and lips like ____". What is the missing word?

Answer: Cherries

The first two verses:
'The old home town looks the same
As I step down from the train
And there to meet me is my Mama and Papa

Down the road I look and there runs Mary
Hair of gold and lips like cherries
It's good to touch the green, green grass of home'

One of the reasons Jones was attracted to the song was that the first two verses reminded of him returning from London on the train to his home at Pontypridd, South Wales.
This single sold 1.205 million copies, the first Decca record to do so. (Decca signed the Rolling Stones in 1962).
5. However, as 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' progresses, there is clearly something wrong, as noted by the mournful lyrics and the sudden change from song to speech. What is the protagonist's twist in the song?

Answer: He was dreaming. He's actually on Death Row.

'Then I awake and look around me
At four gray walls that surround me
And I realize, yes, I was only dreaming

For there's a guard and there's a sad old padre
Arm and arm we'll walk at daybreak
Again I'll touch the green, green grass of home'

Curley Putnam wrote the song in about two hours soon after moving to Nashville as a songwriter. He said he was inspired by the crime scene in "The Asphalt Jungle' (1950) starring Marilyn Monroe. At that stage he was poor and searching for "anything commercial" to write. He later admitted it was the most profitable two hours' work in his life,
6. The title of 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' becomes obvious in the last verse. Why?

Answer: He will be buried beneath the green grass of his home

'Yes, they'll all come to see me
In the shade of that old oak tree
As they lay me 'neath the green, green grass of home'

Perhaps the reason the song was so popular (besides Jones' actual rendition of the song), is the twist. Starting out as a conventional love story, the story quickly developed into a tragedy with the 'green, green grass of home become a bitter irony as the protagonist's final resting place.

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley signed a bill passed by the state legislature in 2013 to make Maryland the eighteenth state to abolish capital punishment. Governor Martin stated into an interview shortly afterward that it was the irony in this song that, in part, influenced his decision to make this legislative change.
7. While 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' will always be known as Tom Jones' song, some big names have also covered and recorded the song. Which one of the following did not?

Answer: The Beatles

A mark of a good song or artist is the number of times the song is covered. While Jones did not write or record the first version, indeed his version wasn't even the first hit of the song, it was a mark of the man that he turned a fairly standard country song into a signature song. Several acts that re-recorded it were big: Charley Pride (1966), Dean Martin, Roger Miller (both 1967), Johnny Cash, (1968), Joan Baez (1969) and Elvis Presley (1975). The Beatles did not cover any of Jones' songs but in 1968, Paul McCartney offered Jones a song as long as he would make it his next single.

At the time Jones was in the middle of releasing 'Without Love' (A hit on both sides of the Atlantic), so he turned down the song. The song title? 'The Long and Winding Road'.
8. 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' was the UK Charts' number one hit over Christmas. The Christmas before the UK number one over Christmas were both Beatles' songs: 'Day Tripper' and; 'Hello, Goodbye'. Therefore what year was 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' the number one UK hit of Christmas?

Answer: 1966

'The Green, Green Grass of Home' was released by Jones in November 1966 and it stayed at number one in the UK for seven weeks including the Christmas week of 1966. The song was a worldwide hit for Jones reaching number one in other countries such as Australia, Ireland and Norway (number two in New Zealand). It only reached number eleven on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
9. It was a mark of Tom Jones' talent that he was asked to sing a James Bond theme song. Which movie?

Answer: Thunderball

'Thunderball' (1965) was the fourth James Bond film, and already the opening credits were a feature of the movie. While Shirley Bassey sang the opening theme in the previous movie 'Goldfinger' (1964), it was a credit to Jones that he was given the task, given this was very early in his career.

It even preceded 'The Green, Green Grass of Home'. When in the studio, recording the song, he reputedly fainted from holding the sustained last note as long as he did. (In the parody of this song by Weird Al Yankovic singing the theme tune to 'Spy Hard' (1996), itself a spoof of Bond movies, Yankovic's head explodes as holds the last note).
10. Tom Jones career has spanned over six decades. In 1999, he released 'Reload'. This was a clever marketing ploy containing one original song, one re-working of an original song and the rest were duets with well known stars singing cover versions. Was 'The Green, Green Grass of Home' the one re-worked original song?

Answer: No

This was Jones' biggest selling album to date. The one re-worked song off the album was Jones' own composition, 'Looking Out My Window" (1968). The original song was 'Sexbomb' (with Mousse T.) which was released as one of five singles released off the album in 1999-2000.

The duets were with high profile performers such as Justin Timberlake ('Are You Gonna Go My Way?'), The Cardigans, ('Burning Down the House') and Natalie Imbruglia ('Never Tear Us Apart'). The album went to number one on three occasions in the UK but it was never released in the US, as the the duets were arguably with performers not well known in the US.

Another attempt to make a similar project with artists better known in the US never eventuated. This perhaps summed up Jones' career: A mega-star in the UK, the Commonwealth countries and Europe but he never quite made it in the US.
Source: Author 1nn1

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor agony before going online.
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This quiz is part of series Commission #38:

FunTrivia is a place of all sorts, and in this 38th Quiz Commission, our authors were tasked with titles of a rainbow of different colours. Each of the titles from this Commission, launched in June 2015, had colours in them, but none could be used for the obvious colour subcategories.

  1. Black Sheep With Blue Blood Average
  2. Living Green: Envy or Conservation? Easier
  3. The Purple People Eaters Easier
  4. Turquoise Waters Easier
  5. Like a Red Rag to a Bull Average
  6. Red Card Blues Average
  7. Red Sky at Morning Average
  8. The Grass is Always Greener Average
  9. Orange You Glad? Average
  10. Pink Is The New Black Average
  11. I Dream Of Green Average
  12. Red Hot Average

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