Green Green Grass of Home

Nice, but not even close to Tom Jones' version.

Elvis and Tom Jones, both, do an amazing job on this song. I like Elvis version, better however.The last line, always breaks my heart, as Elvis sings, "as they lay me neath the green green grass of home". Its so true and so sad.

Elvis delivers a laidback but still very emotional vocal on this song. Just listen to the verse that contain the narration part. Excellent singing. Also I like that he redused the spoken part of the song as opposed to the Jones version. Fits very well. I think the vocal delivery is near perfect. However, the arrangment and instrumentation is not good. Its dull and over produced. Don't like it. Listen to the Jones arrangement for comparisment. Although that one is not perfect either, it wins hands down. Listen to the great bluesy piano on the TJ version. Elvis Presley was a genious in his ability to put emotions and soul into his songs, However this style of singing very often demands a simplified and clean background sound. Less is more here. Instead of building up to and adding to the feeling and atmosphare that El is creating, the background instruments destroy the moment with a wall of smaltz sound. Its like a ballerina wearing boots on stage. Another missed opportunity. So although Elvis delivers a better vocal than Tom Jones(why is the Welshman always yelling?) , the overall result is substandard. Mr Jarvis regularly ruined great vocal performances from Elvis. The most emotional and heartbreaking album ever recorded by any artist, "From Elvis Presley Boulevard", was completely wrecked. Instead of keeping it simple, letting the disturbed soul of Elvis Presley speak for it self, Jarvis emphasized every emotion there was and created a full album of elevator music. Very sad indeed.

A masterpiece !

The today album is still a great favourite and I never get tired of hearing it. I think that Elvis did a great job of this song and comparisons between his version and the Tom Jones cover version of the song are unimportant to me.

great song done with felling the way only Elvis could do

Ok c & w weeper. Elvis seemed to like it a lot, and it was natural for him to have a go at it. Don´t normally listen to it. Mighty tired of all these meningless comparisons. Elvis always did them his way, and we like them or not.

the best versions of this song I know are the Elvis versions. He has such a wonderful timing with the words in this song. Much better than Tom Jones had. Tom sings every rhythmvalue of the note as is written. Elvis sung the rhythm more as you would speak it with accents on the part of the words or on the complete words as you would do when you speak the text. That makes it feel more natural and therefore more real and therefore more touching.

Once read about Elvis driving home to Memphis by car, when they gave airplay to the tom Jones version...guess he called the radio station about 7 times to play the song again...must have liked it a lot...

Elvis sings it in a very beautiful way...although I prefer Tom Jones' version !

There is nothing wrong with comparing versions of songs after all Elvis sang other peoples songs a lot of the time. In this case, TJ has the better version. I find the Elvis arrangement tedious.

If it boils down to transferring the emotion involved to the listener Elvis is the King. His heart seems to be practically always in tune with the sentiment. That's why his version seems to flow from the heart and that what is what counts for me.

Both versions great,but I prefer Elvis'. The emotion and feeling Elvis puts into this song puts his version on top. One of my favorites off one of my favorite albums.

The Elvis version is good. However I prefer the Tom Jones version.

Elvis does a decent cover job, but this is TJ's song all the way. He totally owns it. To this day, he still gives it a great performance in concert.

I was raised with this song playing on the old hifi all the time and it wasn't by either Elvis or TJ. I looked up the Porter Wagoner version but my daddy was never a big fan of his so I wasn't suprised when that wasn't the version I remember. Possibly Johnny Cash but I don't think so so maybe it was the Bobby Bare version which I can't find a copy of. Anyway when I heard Elvis do it the first time, and pardon me if I believe that there isn't a song Elvis did that he didn't do better then anybody else, I knew that his version would always be my favorite. I read that for awhile Elvis had to really work on the talking part of a song as he just didn't seem comfortable doing that but it doesn't show in this song. Love it! btw, on youtube I listen to the Tom Jones version and I thought it was horrible! So different strokes for different folks I guess.

I like, maybe even love it, for Elvis' vocal, but I really do not like the arrangement. It feels claustrophobic to me (of course the guy in the song is in prison...) I would love to hear a stripped down version with only Elvis' voice and piano, or acoustic guitar, or maybe even a very very small string section. Still, it is a beautiful song sung typically well by Elvis. I like Tom Jones' version a lot too.

Wonder how Elvis would have sounded with this song had he recorded it in 68 or 69? Or even at his peak for this kind of son in '61?

Elvis' version blows Tom Jones' version away. You can hear with every note and every breath that he takes, that this song was meant for him.

elvis version is the best i've heard this song has a long history .not just by elvis or tom jones.heard it by david allen coe&johnnypaycheck.

Recorded in March 1975 for the album "Elvis Today", I first heard Elvis' version on the 1979 LP "Our Memories Of Elvis, Vol. 2" (stripped down version) and find his performance simply amazing. You feel as if he is actually living the song and when he speaks the opening two lines of verse three, it is spine chilling. If you want to compare arrangements between Tom Jones' version and the "Elvis Today" version, I will listen. If you are comparing vocals, there is nothing to compare, Elvis wins easily.

Fantastic vocal performance by Elvis with poor arrangement from Felton. It was about time in the mid seventies, not only for a new manager and tailor, but also for a new producer. Loyal to a fault, I guess.

Tom Jones has never appealed to me as much as Elvis as I prefer the Presley 'smoother' vocal style that hits me personally, and not the coarseness in Tom's voice. That said there are half a dozen 'big' songs that suit Tom perfectly and this is one of them, and all things considered it is superior to the Elvis version. However Elvis runs him close and is another magnificent addition to his song portfolio - 4 stars.

THis type of song is not my cup of tea! Nice vocals, but as a song it's nothing special. Nor Elvis not Tom Jones.

Great song and album. Perfect vocal and indeed no comparison with TJ. 5 stars.

This is such a spectacular, iconic and unique song and all of Elvis' renditions of it were magnificent. I like Elvis' renditions and Tom Jones' renditions of this classic gem equally.

Red West let Elvis hear Jerry Lee Lewis version. It didn't appeal to Elvis. Then he heard Tom Jones' version and loved it. I prefer Elvis' version. Wonderful.

thought tom jones was an excellent version, but there is a warmth to elvis's voice that tom doesn't have on this track and the spoken part belongs to elvis ...that said though the arrangement on the jones version is better. still 5 stars from me.

Tom Jones, Neil Diamond, Englebert Humperdink and Glen Campbell were Elvis' peers in the late 60s and 70s. Elvis' cover versions of their songs are great. It would have been interesting to see if Elvis would have had a new burst of energy when Kenny Rogers suddenly became a superstar. As stated in a previous post, the packaging of the Today LP looked cheap, and the sound quality (until the FTD release and Legacy box set) was sub par.

Think if He had record in the sixties when a friend told him to do that.. What a Hit it would had been before Jerry Lee and Tom Jones had recorded it !Many lost moment !

Elvis' studio recording of "Take 1" should have been chosen as the master, in my opinion.

Elvis brings a world weary quality to his version that I really like. 4 stars.