On This Day in 1947, Tex Williams Recorded the Sardonic Anti-Smoking Tune That Later Became the Title Song to a Sardonic Anti-Smoking Film

Cigarettes and country music have a long history. Artists like Lefty Frizzell and Patsy Cline have mostly used nicotine as a metaphor for heartbreak and misery. Examples include songs like “Cigarettes and Coffee Blues” and “Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray.” On this day (March 27) in 1947, talking-blues crooner Tex Williams stepped into Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California. There, he aired all his grievances with the man who invented the “cancer stick.” Later, “Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)” became the title track for the 2005 satirical film Thank You for Smoking, which skewered the tobacco industry just as Williams intended.

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Merle Travis Wrote Most of This Tex Williams Hit

Tex Williams teamed up with Hall of Fame singer-songwriter Merle Travis to write “Smoke”. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Travis wrote the majority of the song. The Kentucky native is known for other enduring country music standards like “Sixteen Tons”, recorded by Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1965.

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Now, it isn’t that our “Smoke” narrator is immune to the cigarette’s seductive pull. Smoked all my life and I ain’t dead yet, he declares in the third verse.

[RELATED: On This Day in 1983, Country Music Said Goodbye to a Massively Influential Guitarist Who Wrote Some of the Genre’s Most Enduring Hit Songs]

And yet, he bemoans the various ways that smoking disrupts important life events. From a high-stakes poker game to a date with a “high-bred, uptown, fancy” woman, these “nicotine slaves” crave their fix at the most inopportune of moments.

Ironically, a heavy smoker himself, Tex Williams died of lung and pancreatic cancer on October 11, 1985, at age 68. Tell St. Peter at the Golden Gate / That you hate to make him wait / But you just gotta have another cigarette.

Where You May Have Heard This Song Before

Tex Williams’ “Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)” spent 16 weeks atop the Hot Country Songs. In fact, it was the No. 1 country song for all of 1947.

Nearly 60 years later, Williams’ novelty hit gained new life as the title song of Thank You for Smoking. Four-time Academy Award nominee Jason Reitman wrote and directed the 2005 black comedy, based on the 1994 novel by Christopher Buckley.

Aaron Eckhart earned a Golden Globe nod for his portrayal of a Big Tobacco spokesman who lobbies the U.S. government on behalf of cigarettes—all while trying to remain a role model for his preteen son. The film also stars Sam Elliott, Rob Lowe, William H. Macy, and Robert Duvall.

Featured image by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images