Little Green Apples (song)

"Little Green Apples" is a song written by Bobby Russell which was most successful as a 1968 hit single by O. C. Smith.

According to Buzz Cason, who partnered Bobby Russell in the Nashville-based Rising Sons music publishing firm, Russell wrote both the songs "Honey" 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. Russell wrote "Little Green Apples" for Roger Miller to record and Miller made the first recording of the song on January 24, 1968 in a session at Columbia Recording Studio Nashville produced by Jerry Kennedy. Released as the lead single from the album A Tender Look at Love, "Little Green Apples" afforded Miller his final Top Ten C&W hit at #6 and also his final Top 40 crossover reaching #39 on the Hot 100 in Billboard. In the UK Miller's "Little Green Apples" reached #19 in the spring of 1968 – when it also reached #46 in Australia – and in the spring of 1969 the track returned to the UK chart reaching #39. Patti Page recorded "Little Green Apples" for her C&W-oriented album Gentle on My Mind whose title cut shared the Easy Listening Top Ten with Roger Miller's "Little Green Apples". Page's version of the latter was released as a single in June 1968 reaching #11 Easy Listening and affording Page the final Hot 100 appearance of her career at #96.

O. C. Smith had recorded "Little Green Apples" at Columbia Studios LA for Hickory Holler Revisited, the parent album of his Top 40 hit "Son of Hickory Holler's Tramp". The track "Main Street Mission" was issued as the follow-up single, but as Buzz Cason recalls "a disc jockey in Detroit played the album cut [by O. C. Smith] of 'Little Green Apples' one morning". That single spin triggered "such a reaction and rash of phone requests [as to] prompt [the deejay] to call Steve Popovich, head of promotion for Columbia in New York [City]", and "Little Green Apples" replaced "Main Street Mission" as Smith's current single. Smith's version was a #2 hit on both the Hot 100 and the R&B chart in Billboard and was certified Gold for domestic sales of one million units. The song won its composer Bobby Russell the 1969 Grammy Award for Song of the Year and the Grammy Award for Best Country Song.

Other notable versions
The song has been covered by the following artists and groups:
 * Burl Ives on his 1968 album The Times They Are A-Changin'
 * Tony Joe White on his 1968 album Black and White
 * Frank Sinatra on his 1968 album Cycles
 * Glen Campbell and Bobbie Gentry on their 1968 album Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell
 * The Temptations on their 1969 album Puzzle People
 * Tony Bennett on his 1970 album Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today!
 * Ben E. King on his 1970 album Rough Edges
 * Bloodstone on their 1972 self-titled album
 * Monica Zetterlund in 1969 as Små gröna äpplen, with Swedish lyrics written by ABBA's manager Stig Anderson. Both the performance and the lyrics won Swedish Grammy awards.
 * Nancy Wilson on her 2004 album R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal)