I Beg Your Pardon
"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.
| "I Beg Your Pardon (I Never Promised You a Rose Garden)" | ||||
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| Single by Kon Kan | ||||
| from the album Move to Move | ||||
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| Length | 3:59 | |||
| Label | Atlantic | |||
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| Kon Kan singles chronology | ||||
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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.
"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. Music critic James Masterton wrote that the song was one of the first big club hits to contain prominent samples.
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.