Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) is a Western swing
novelty song written by Merle Travis and Tex Williams for Tex
Williams and his talking blues style of singing. Merle Travis
wrote the bulk of the song.. The original Tex Williams version
went to number one for sixteen, non consecutive weeks on the
Hot Country Songs chart . A popular version performed by Phil
Harris stayed on the charts for 23 weeks, reaching #1 in July
1947. On the Popular charts it became a number one hit in
August 1947 and stayed at the top of the charts for six
weeks.
Williams made a stereophonic re-recording of the song for
Capitol in 1960 on the LP album Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! .
The song can be heard in the opening of the 2006 film
Thank You for Smoking. It has also been covered by Sammy
Davis, Jr., Willie Nelson, Phil Harris, Jimmy Dean, Commander
Cody, Asleep at the Wheel and a few others.
The ostensible narrator of the song is himself a smoker and
the song is primarily complaining about cigarettes being used
to delay other activities. While the line "
And I don't reckon they hinder your health/I've smoked all
my life and I ain't dead yet" may lead some to believe the
song suggests that cigarettes are perhaps not harmful to one's
health, the guitar riff that follows indicates this line is
intended as a joke -- The stanza "
Tell St. Peter at the Pearly Gate/That you hate to make him
wait/But you just gotta have another cigarette" and the
chorus, which includes the line "
Puff, puff, puff and if you smoke yourself to death"
demonstrate that the song carries a warning about the adverse
health effects of smoking. It also makes a statement as to the
addictive nature of cigarette smoking.