"Flowers on the Wall" is a song originally recorded by American country music group The Statler Brothers. Written and composed by Lew DeWitt, the group's original tenor vocalist, the song peaked in popularity in January 1966, spending four weeks at number two on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart, and reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Eric Heatherly recorded the song in 2000 for his debut album, Swimming in Champagne. Released as his debut single, Heatherly's rendition reached number six on the Hot Country Songs chart and number 50 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song (its 1975 version) is used in the soundtrack to the 1994 film Pulp Fiction.[12] In the film, Bruce Willis's character sings along to the line, "smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo" as he is driving.
The song is also referenced in the 1995 film
Die Hard with a Vengeance where Bruce Willis's character says he was "working on a nice fat suspension, smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo
" .
Kurt Vonnegut quotes the song's complete lyrics in his 1981 book Palm Sunday, calling the song "yet another great contemporary poem by the Statler Brothers" and using it to describe "the present condition" of an American man who had recently departed his family. "It is not a poem of escape or rebirth. It is a poem about the end of a man's usefulness", he adds.