Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)” is a Western swing novelty song written by Merle Travis and Tex Williams, for Williams and his talking blues style of singing. Travis wrote the bulk of the song. The original Williams version went to number one for 16 non-consecutive weeks on the Hot Country Songs chart and became a number one hit in August 1947 and remained at the top of the “Best Sellers in Stores” chart for six weeks. It was recorded on March 27, 1947, at Radio Recorders in Hollywood.
Lyrics
Now I’m a feller with a heart of gold
And the ways of a gentleman I’ve been told
The kind of guy that wouldn’t even harm a fleaBut if me and a certain character met
The guy that invented the cigarette
I’d murder that son-of-a-gun in the first degree
It ain’t cuz I don’t smoke myself
And I don’t reckon that it’ll harm your health
Smoked all my life and I ain’t dead yet
But nicotine slaves are all the same
At a pettin’ party or a poker game
Everything gotta stop while they have a cigarette
Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette
Puff, puff, puff and if you smoke yourself to death
Tell St. Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hate to make him wait
But you just gotta have another cigarette
Now in a game of chance the other night
Old Dame Fortune was a-doin’ me right
The kings and the queens just kept on comin’ round
And I got a full and I bet ’em high
But my bluff didn’t work on a certain guy
He just kept on raisin’ and layin’ that money down
Now he’d raise me and I’d raise him
I sweated blood, gotta sink or swim
He finally called and didn’t even raise the bet
So I said “aces full Pops how ’bout you?”
He said “I’ll tell you in a minute or two
But right now, I gotta have me a cigarette”
Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette
Puff, puff, puff and if you smoke yourself to death
Tell St. Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hates to make him wait
But you just gotta have another cigarette
(Ah, smoke it! Hah! Yes! Yes! Yes!)
The other night I had a date
With the cutest little girl in the United States
A high-bred, uptown, fancy little dame
She loved me and it seemed to me
That things were ’bout like they oughta be
So hand in hand we strolled down lover’s lane
She was oh so far from a cake of ice
And our smoochin’ party was goin’ nice
So help me cats I believe I’d be there yet
But I give her a kiss and a little squeeze
And she said, “ah, Marty, excuse me please
I just gotta have me another, cigarette”
And she said, smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette
Puff, puff, puff and if you smoke yourself to death
Tell St. Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hate to make him wait
But you just gotta have another cigarette