"Little Green Apples" is a song written by Bobby Russell that became a hit for three different artists, with their three separate releases, in 1968.
According to Buzz Cason, who partnered Bobby Russell in the Nashville-based Rising Sons music publishing firm, Russell wrote both the songs "Honey" (a #1 hit for Bobby Goldsboro in 1968) and "Little Green Apples" as "an experiment in composing", anticipating a potential market for true-to-life story songs...with more 'meat' in the lyrics [than was] standard" for current hits.
The track "Main Street Mission" was originally issued as the follow-up single, but as Buzz Cason recalls "a disc jockey in Detroit played the album cut [by O. C. Smith] of 'Little Green Apples' one morning".
That single spin triggered "such a reaction and rash of phone requests [as to] prompt [the deejay] to call Steve Popovich, head of promotion for Columbia in New York [City]",[5] and "Little Green Apples" replaced "Main Street Mission" as Smith's then current single.
Smith's version was a #2 hit on the Hot 100, behind "Hey Jude" by the Beatles,[6] and likewise peaked at #2 on the R&B chart in Billboard and was certified Gold for domestic sales of one million units.