I Beg Your Pardon (I Never Promised You a Rose Garden) - 12" Remix

Kon Kan is the creation of Barry Harris, a Toronto-based producer who wrote and produced this song, which reached #19 in his native Canada and did even better in America, where it climbed to #15. The singer is Kevin Wynne, whom Harris hired to add vocals to this and some other tracks from Kon Kan's debut album, Move To Move.

The title and hook come from Lynn Anderson's 1970 international hit "(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden," which is sampled on the track. Barry Harris used the pre-chorus, which goes: Smile for the while and let's be jolly Love shouldn't be so melancholy Come along and share the good times, while we can

The "Rose Garden" sample is stuttered when Lynn Anderson sings the word "love." That was done for a practical reason. In a Songfacts interview with Barry Harris, he explained: "I had the (now famous) hook in mind from the beginning and we went through different keyboard sounds he had until we came across the one I liked. I knew I wanted to sample 'Rose Garden' and early in the making of my song I realized I had to make it fit somehow within it at 122bpm. Not only did it have to be chopped up to fit tempo wise, it would also dictate what key my song around it would have to be. The only reason the 'Smile for a while and let's be jolly... L, L, L, love shouldn't be so melancholy' and the stuttering happens is because it was the only way I could get that section sample-wise to actually fit at 122bpm. The original song was recorded in 1970 and the tempo was all over the place. Little did I realize I was also creating an additional catchy gimmick or hook."