Songfacts®:

• 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."
• "I Beg Your Pardon" was initially released on Revolving Records, an independent label run by the people who owned a record store called Starsound Records, where Barry Harris worked. Everyone at Starsound helped promote the song, which made its way to clubs and radio stations in the Toronto area. When a few American radio stations started playing it, that got the attention of Atlantic Records, which signed Kon Kan. Atlantic positioned the group as a duo with Kevin Wynne the visual focus, even though it was really Barry Harris' project. On the next Kon Kan album, Harris didn't use Wynne, opting instead for other vocalists.
• "I Beg Your Pardon" also samples "Disco Nights (Rock-Freak)" by GQ and the theme music from the movie The Magnificent Seven.
  
  When Kon Kan singed with Atlantic, they sorted out the legal issues, but Harris had already struck a deal with the publisher of "Rose Garden" to use the song.
• Barry Harris of Kon Kan went on to become a multi-talented dance music producer and remixer. He has produced dance mixes for the likes of Christina Aguilera, Mary J. Blige, Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Britney Spears, the Spice Girls and Whitney Houston. The vocalist Kevin Wynne, who left shortly after this hit, went into the business side of music and also became a semi-pro video golfer.
• The name Kon Kan is a twist on the phrase "Can Con" (short for Canadian Content Regulation) which is the rule that forces Canadian radio station to play 35% Canadian music.
• There's a disconnect between the verse lyrics and the "Rose Garden" sample. In the verses, the singer is addressing a love that has gone cold, so there's really no reason to smile for a while and be jolly, but that's the part that really grabs the listener.
  
  "The lyrics I wrote were about my first big relationship when I was 21," Harris explained to Songfacts. "I was 28 when I wrote and produced 'I Beg Your Pardon.' Writing the lyrics wasn't all that hard as I just wrote about how I felt at the time.
  
  I know the 'smile for a while' 'Rose Garden' lyrics don't necessarily match my verses, but obviously it didn't matter. I still like to this day the sentiment of "come along and share the good times while we can." Life is short, try not to take it all too seriously (if possible)."
• The voice heard between "rock" and "freak" that says "Do you want to hustle?" and "Do you want to salsa?" comes from a 1977 National Lampoon comedy bit called "Disco Hotline," about a phone number you could call to get advice on dancing.
• An array of keyboards and samplers were used to make this song, including an E-mu SP-12 drum machine, a Yamaha FB-01 synthesizer, and an Ensoniq sampler. Barry Harris used a home studio owned by his friend, Tom Gerenscer, who had all this gear.
• The song starts with phone ringing, followed by a big "awwwww... ya!" that Barry Harris created by bringing a bunch of friends and family members into the vocal booth.
  
  The phone ended up being the theme for the music video, which shows Kevin Wynne in a phone booth while Harris dances around it with a keyboard.
• The follow-up song was "Puss N' Boots / These Boots (Are Made For Walking)," which followed a similar formula, this time with the hook coming from Nancy Sinatra's famous song. That one, which made it to #58 in America, has some Led Zeppelin interpolations made possible because Kon Kan was signed to Atlantic Records, which was Zeppelin's label.