"Room Full of Roses", written by Tim Spencer, is a song first recorded in 1949 by country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 singer George Morgan

George Morgan (singer)

George Thomas Morgan was a mid-20th century American country music singer. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and a former member of the Grand Ole Opry.-Biography:...

, and famously covered in 1974 by up-and-coming singer Mickey Gilley

Mickey Gilley

Mickey Leroy Gilley is an American country music singer and musician. Although he started out singing straight-up country and western material in the 1970s, he moved towards a more pop-friendly sound in the 1980s, bringing him further success on not just the country charts, but the pop charts as...

. The Gilley version was his first major hit and broke open his career.

Background

In 1973, Mickey Gilley was enjoying brisk business with his nightclub, Gilley's Club

Gilley's Club

Gilley's is a bar/honky tonk founded in 1971 by country singer Mickey Gilley in Pasadena, Texas. It was the central location in the 1980 movie Urban Cowboy.It was a huge building with a corrugated steel roof that housed multiple bars and mechanical bulls...

, when he cut four sides for his own label, Astro Records. Those songs included "She Called Me Baby" (for a local jukebox owner), "Abilene

Abilene (song)

Abilene is the title of a song written by Bob Gibson and John D. Loudermilk, and recorded by American country music artist George Hamilton IV. The song reached number one on the U.S. country music chart for four weeks, and peaked at number 15 on the pop music charts...

" and "When Two Worlds Collide." The fourth was "Room Full of Roses," a song written by Sons of the Pioneers

Sons of the Pioneers

The Sons of the Pioneers are one of America's earliest Western singing groups whose classic recordings set a new standard for performers of Western music. Known for the high quality of their vocal performances, musicianship, and songwriting, they produced finely-crafted and innovative recordings...

 member Tim Spencer and recorded by George Morgan.

Gilley never intended to have a hit with "Room Full of Roses," as it was designated the B-side

A-side and B-side

A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...

 for "She Called Me Baby." In fact, Gilley was not even happy with the final product of that recording. "I liked 'She Called Me Baby,' and thought to myself, well, I finally got something." Gilley once told Country Music magazine. "Then I flipped the record over. All I could hear was that damn steel guitar. The echo was just bounding off the walls.'"

Country music writer Tom Roland also noted that Gilley got lost during the piano interlude during the middle portion of the song, but "somehow managed to come out of it in sync with the studio band." Other flaws pointed out included muffled lyrics and excessive "echo" (to conceal the song being recorded out of tune).

Gilley was resigned, however, to the song being "terrible," as he saw the record being distributed only in the Houston, Texas

Houston, Texas

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

 area. It was later picked up for national distribution by the newly formed Playboy Records

Playboy Records

Playboy Records was a record label in Los Angeles, California, and a unit of Playboy Enterprises. Artists recording for the label included Barbi Benton, Blue Ash, Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers, Brenda Patterson, Jeanne French , Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds, Ivory, Wynn Stewart, Mickey Gilley...

.

Released in April 1974, the song soon became Gilley's first No. 1 hit on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

chart.

Other versions

The original George Morgan version was released in the summer of 1949, and would reach No. 4 on the Billboard country chart that August. A Sons of the Pioneers version reached #10 on the country charts in the same year.

Chart performance

Chart (1974)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	50
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	6
Canadian RPM Top Singles	57