I Beg Your Pardon
{{Infobox song
| name = I Beg Your Pardon (I Never Promised You a Rose Garden)
| cover = i beg your pardon.jpg
| alt =
| type = single
| artist = Kon Kan
| album = Move to Move
| released = * {{start date|1988}} (Canada)
- {{start date|1989|02|20}} (UK)
| recorded =
| studio =
| venue =
| genre =
- Synth-pop[http://www.electricity-club.co.uk/lost-albums-kon-kan-move-to-move-3/ Lost Albums : KON KAN Move To Move | The Electricity Club] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131121222741/http://www.electricity-club.co.uk/lost-albums-kon-kan-move-to-move-3/ |date=21 November 2013 }}
- dance-pop{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/move-to-move-mw0000653466|title=Move to Move Review|publisher=AllMusic|last=Cooper|first=William|access-date=7 June 2022}}
| length = {{duration|m=3|s=59}}
| label = Atlantic
| writer = * Barry Harris
| producer = * Barry Harris
- Tom Gerencser
| prev_title =
| prev_year =
| next_title = Harry Houdini
| next_year = 1988
}}
"I Beg Your Pardon (I Never Promised You a Rose Garden)" is the debut single by Canadian duo Kon Kan, from their 1989 debut album Move to Move. It was written and produced by Barry Harris. American musician Joe South also received a songwriting credit, due to the song's sampling of Lynn Anderson's 1970 hit "Rose Garden", which South wrote.
Harris said that the song was "the question to Lynn Anderson's 'Rose Garden' answer." It was Harris's first studio project, and was initially released on an unknown independent record label in Toronto.{{Cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Billboard/80s/1989/BB-1989-08-12.pdf|title=Kon Kan Is On The 'Move' With New Album|last=Richliano|first=James|date=August 12, 1989|work=Billboard Magazine|access-date=24 August 2019}}
The song was a hit, reaching the top twenty in a number of countries including the UK and U.S., where it peaked at numbers 5 and 15, respectively.{{cite web|url=http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/_/kon%20kan/ |title=KON KAN | Artist |publisher=Official Charts |date= |accessdate=2013-06-23}}
Background
Barry Harris took inspiration from the Pet Shop Boys' 1987 single "Always on My Mind", which had repurposed Willie Nelson's 1982 country ballad into an upbeat synthpop song. Harris wanted to do the same with Lynn Anderson's 1970 country hit "Rose Garden". As he was a DJ at the time, he was "exploding with ideas" for little sounds he incorporated into "I Beg Your Pardon". Harris said, "The lyrics were about my first love relationship. As I had never really attempted to write lyrics seriously before, I already had the melody of the verses in my head so I simply started with a 'Once Upon a Time' idea… 'there once was a time and there once was a way…' and it pretty much flowed from there."{{cite web|url=https://www.rediscoverthe80s.com/2021/11/interview-with-barry-harris-of-kon-kan.html|title=Interview with Barry Harris of Kon Kan |website= Kickin' it Old School|date=June 27, 2013 |accessdate=December 11, 2021}}
Musically, in this song, Harris also wanted to emulate "Bass (How Low Can You Go)" by Simon Harris, as well as "S'Express", two sample-based hits from 1988. The result was unique; Masterton wrote that Kon Kan's pop song "sounded like very little else on the market," and was quickly rewarded with chart success.
Samples
"I Beg Your Pardon" also contains samples of other songs, including GQ's "Disco Nights (Rock-Freak)", Silver Convention's "Get Up and Boogie" and Tones on Tail's "Go!", as well as interpolations of Spagna's "Call Me" and Elmer Bernstein's The Magnificent Seven theme.
There is also a sampled piece of spoken word dialogue ("Do you want to hustle? / Do you want to salsa?") from That's Not Funny, That's Sick, a 1977 sketch comedy album from National Lampoon. The dialogue is pulled from a track called "Disco Hotline".{{cite web|url=https://www.whosampled.com/National-Lampoon/Disco-Hotline/ |title=National Lampoon - Disco Hotline |publisher=WhoSampled.com |date= |accessdate=2024-08-26}}
Music critic James Masterton wrote that the song was one of the first big club hits to contain prominent samples.{{cite book |title=Chart Watch UK – Hits of 1989 |last=Masterton |first=James |authorlink=James Masterton |date= |publisher=Chart Watch UK |page=289 |isbn=9780463138571}}
Charts
=Weekly charts=
=Year-end charts=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Chart (1988–89)
!Peak |
|---|
| Canada Dance/Urban (RPM){{cite magazine |title=Top 25 Dance Singles of '88 |magazine=RPM |volume=49| issue=10| page=10 |date=24 December 1988| access-date=14 July 2019| url=http://rpmimages.3345.ca/pdfs/Volume%2049-No.%2010-December%2024,%201988.pdf}}
|align="center"|12 |
References
{{reflist}}
{{Kon Kan}}
{{authority control}}
Category:Songs written by Joe South
Category:Atlantic Records singles
Category:Juno Award for Dance Recording of the Year recordings
{{1980s-pop-song-stub}}