# "Smoke, smoke smoke that cigarette..." song **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [February 21, 2024, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-smoke-smoke-that-cigarette-song/997897 "2024-02-21T17:23:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2024, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-smoke-smoke-that-cigarette-song/997897/1 "2024-02-21T17:23:41Z")
Do you remember it? I haven’t thought about it in decades but I certainly remember it. Looking it up in Wikipedia there have been so many covers that I have no idea what version I heard. The song was written when I was one year old in 1947 so I suppose one the 1960s covers is what I recall. And the whole, rhythmic, talking blues style reminds me of Charlie Daniels’ “Uneasy Rider”.That song always cracks me up. I just listened to it again and I laughed throughout it. And it’s the only Charlie Daniels song without a swamp 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2024, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-smoke-smoke-that-cigarette-song/997897/2 "2024-02-21T19:32:42Z")
I love that song. The first version I heard was by Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, with the outstanding pedal steel part. I think it’s interesting how much power the tobacco companies had: the guy who’s complaining about cigarettes had to be a smoker himself. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2024, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-smoke-smoke-that-cigarette-song/997897/3 "2024-02-21T20:16:19Z")
I remember that song _very_ well. My dad played acoustic guitar and it was one of the songs he always played. With a cigarette in the ashtray, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2024, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-smoke-smoke-that-cigarette-song/997897/4 "2024-02-21T20:20:41Z")
My dad sang that one to me, starting in the late Eisenhower administration. I’d sing it back to him whenever he lit up. He did eventually quit. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/65_-vNtWLLs/hqdefault.jpg "Tex Williams - Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) 1947") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65_-vNtWLLs) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2024, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-smoke-smoke-that-cigarette-song/997897/5 "2024-02-21T20:40:49Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > He did eventually quit. My dad quit also, when a heart attack took him at 56 years of age. He _loved_ cigarettes, was in excellent health and physically a near perfect specimen. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2024, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-smoke-smoke-that-cigarette-song/997897/6 "2024-02-21T22:48:54Z")
My mother smoked most of her life. One positive result was that my brothers and I _hated_ the smell of those damn things. None of us ever touched them. When I would grimace at her cigarette smoke, she would confidently assure me that she had felt the way when she was my age. “Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it”. A negative result was that my mother came down with vascular dementia, which removed her mental and physical faculties for the last ten years of her life. She hated this song. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2024, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-smoke-smoke-that-cigarette-song/997897/7 "2024-02-22T03:15:41Z")
I know the song from high school–our school had a video production class that did the “news” every morning. It featured campus announcements and then short “slice of student life” video pieces. One person did a piece on our school’s student smoking section (this was in the 90s-I dont think schools have those anymore) and they used that song as the music for the video. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2024, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-smoke-smoke-that-cigarette-song/997897/8 "2024-02-22T05:56:59Z")
I remember it very well, also from the late Eisenhower years. My father smoked a lot, including during dinner, although he graciously but ineffectually tried to blow his smoke away from the table. I’ve had asthma all my life, probably not a result of his smoking, but the smoking didn’t help it either. I don’t remember whose version of the song we had. Not Tex Williams anyway, it was a man with a reverberant bass-baritone voice. I used to play it a lot, hoping the message might get through. He finally did quit, after I left home (thanks, Dad), although he later backslid and sneaked cigarettes in the garage, as if that fooled anyone. Then later he really did quit, and he lived to be 87 with nary a sign of lung cancer or emphysema. My mother’s father died in his sleep from emphysema at 74, and I was surprised he lasted that long, after hearing him coughing all the time. Damn, but I hate smoking and tobacco companies. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2024, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoke-smoke-smoke-that-cigarette-song/997897/9 "2024-02-22T14:46:43Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > I love that song. The first version I heard was by Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, with the outstanding pedal steel part. I remember noticing that the pedal steel riff during the last verse (“Now life ain’t nothin’ but a poker game…”) is identical to the riff in Glenn Miller’s “Pennsylvania 6-5000”.