Tomb of the Unknown Love
"Tomb of the Unknown Love" | ||||
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Single by Kenny Rogers | ||||
from the album The Heart of the Matter | ||||
B-side | "Our Perfect Song" | |||
Released | February 7, 1986 | |||
Genre | Country | |||
Length | 4:03 | |||
Label | RCA Records | |||
Songwriter(s) | Micheal Smotherman | |||
Producer(s) | George Martin | |||
Kenny Rogers singles chronology | ||||
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"Tomb of the Unknown Love" is a song written by Micheal Smotherman and recorded by American country music artist Kenny Rogers. It was released in February 1986 as the second and final single from the album, The Heart of the Matter. The song was Rogers' thirteenth number one single on the country chart. The single went to number one for one week and spent a total of fourteen weeks on the country chart.[1]
Content
The narrator of the song, traveling during the winter season across the country to meet a woman (from whom he received a letter), stops at a diner in a small mining town near Taos, New Mexico, and hears a haunting sound in the cold wind. He asks the waitress about the sound; the waitress (and several truckers in the diner) laugh it off, calling it "the tomb of the unknown love" and direct the narrator to a gravestone "all by itself, beneath a tree, beside a hill" (the lyrics paying homage to the classic song "Green, Green Grass of Home"). The narrator reads the stone, which talks about a young man who was hanged after killing a woman who had cheated on him.
The second verse mentions that the narrator visits the woman for the very same reason – to kill her for ending their relationship (the letter presumably being a "Dear John letter"). He makes no effort to elude law enforcement, and in the end will also be hanged, only wondering if someday he will be buried in the same manner. Thus, it is ambiguous whether the narrator actually saw a grave, or a precursor to his own fatal end.
Chart performance
Chart (1986) | Peak position |
---|---|
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[2] | 1 |
Canadian RPM Country Tracks | 1 |
References
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- Love Lifted Me
- Kenny Rogers
- Daytime Friends
- Love or Something Like It
- The Gambler
- Kenny
- Gideon
- Share Your Love
- Love Will Turn You Around
- We've Got Tonight
- Eyes That See in the Dark
- What About Me?
- The Heart of the Matter
- They Don't Make Them Like They Used To
- I Prefer the Moonlight
- Something Inside So Strong
- Love Is Strange
- Back Home Again
- If Only My Heart Had a Voice
- Vote for Love
- Across My Heart
- She Rides Wild Horses
- There You Go Again
- Back to the Well
- Water & Bridges
- You Can't Make Old Friends
- Life Is Like a Song
- Every Time Two Fools Collide (with Dottie West)
- Classics (with Dottie West)
- Timepiece (with David Foster)
- Christmas
- Once Upon a Christmas (with Dolly Parton)
- Christmas in America
- The Gift
- Christmas from the Heart
- Once Again It's Christmas
- Ten Years of Gold
- The Kenny Rogers Singles Album
- Greatest Hits (1980)
- 20 Greatest Hits
- Duets
- The Kenny Rogers Story
- Love Is What We Make It
- Short Stories
- Greatest Hits (1988)
- Daytime Friends – The Very Best of Kenny Rogers
- Live by Request
- 42 Ultimate Hits
- 21 Number Ones
- "That Crazy Feeling"
- "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)"
- "But You Know I Love You"
- "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town"
- "Something's Burning"
- "Love Lifted Me"
- "Laura (What's He Got That I Ain't Got)"
- "Lucille"
- "Daytime Friends"
- "Sweet Music Man"
- "Every Time Two Fools Collide" (with Dottie West)
- "Love or Something Like It"
- "Anyone Who Isn't Me Tonight" (with Dottie West)
- "The Gambler"
- "All I Ever Need Is You" (with Dottie West)
- "She Believes in Me"
- "'Til I Can Make It on My Own" (with Dottie West)
- "You Decorated My Life"
- "Coward of the County"
- "Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer" (with Kim Carnes)
- "Love the World Away"
- "Lady"
- "I Don't Need You"
- "Share Your Love with Me"
- "Blaze of Glory"
- "Through the Years"
- "Love Will Turn You Around"
- "A Love Song"
- "We've Got Tonight" (with Sheena Easton)
- "All My Life"
- "Scarlet Fever"
- "Islands in the Stream" (with Dolly Parton)
- "Eyes That See in the Dark"
- "This Woman"
- "Buried Treasure"
- "Together Again" (with Dottie West)
- "What About Me?" (with Kim Carnes and James Ingram)
- "Evening Star"
- "Crazy"
- "Morning Desire"
- "Goodbye Marie"
- "Tomb of the Unknown Love"
- "Twenty Years Ago"
- "Make No Mistake, She's Mine" (with Ronnie Milsap)
- "I Prefer the Moonlight"
- "The Factory"
- "I Don't Call Him Daddy"
- "When You Put Your Heart in It"
- "Planet Texas"
- "The Vows Go Unbroken (Always True to You)"
- "Maybe" (with Holly Dunn)
- "Love Is Strange" (with Dolly Parton)
- "Crazy in Love"
- "If You Want to Find Love"
- "Ol' Red"
- "Mary, Did You Know?" (with Wynonna Judd)
- "The Greatest"
- "Buy Me a Rose" (with Alison Krauss and Billy Dean)
- "He Will, She Knows"
- "There You Go Again"
- "Homeland"
- "I Can't Unlove You"
- "What Are We Doin' in Love" (with Dottie West)
- "Real Love" (with Dolly Parton)
- "If I Ever Fall in Love Again" (with Anne Murray)
- "Elvira"
- "You and I" (with the Bee Gees)
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