About The Song
“Another Puff” is one of those Jerry Reed records that tells you exactly where he was in the early 1970s: a hitmaker who didn’t mind turning everyday life into a storyline. RCA released the song as a single on January 3, 1972, and it was tied directly to his 1971 album Ko-Ko Joe, produced by Chet Atkins. In that stretch, Reed was coming off a string of singles that mixed talking-blues humor with sharp observation, and “Another Puff” fits the pattern—only this time the target isn’t the courtroom or a swamp legend, it’s a cigarette.
The songwriting credit gets discussed a lot because different discographies list it slightly differently. The single and album credits commonly attach Earl Jarrett’s name, and several major catalogs also credit Jerry R. Hubbard (Reed’s full name) alongside him. That’s consistent with what you hear on the record: it plays like a song that has a traditional “verse-and-chorus” core, plus the kind of spoken, ad-libbed commentary Reed was famous for adding when he wanted the story to feel like it was happening in real time.
Reed released “Ko-Ko Joe” first, in August 1971, as the album’s lead single—so by the time “Another Puff” arrived, listeners already expected a character sketch with a punchline. Instead, he flips the camera inward. The narrator hears the warnings about smoking, tries to quit, and immediately runs into the small humiliations of withdrawal: the pocket reach, the rationalizations, the bargaining with yourself. It’s not preached as a moral lecture; it’s staged as a daily tug-of-war that most people recognize even if they’ve never smoked.
The timing is part of the “side story.” In the early ’70s, the health debate around cigarettes was moving out of medical journals and into normal conversation, and Reed essentially turns that atmosphere into a country single. He does it without sounding like a spokesperson. It’s closer to a friend telling you what happened when he swore he was done—then got talked into “just one more,” because “one more” always sounds harmless until it isn’t.
It performed like a solid follow-up rather than a repeat of his biggest pop-crossover moment. “Another Puff” reached No. 27 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles and crossed over to No. 65 on the Billboard Hot 100. In Canada, it climbed to No. 19 on RPM’s Country Tracks and No. 83 on RPM’s Top Singles. For an offbeat, anti-smoking story song, that’s a respectable spread.
The single’s flip side was “Love Man,” and the pairing tells you how RCA was packaging Reed at the time: a distinctive storyteller on the A-side, with something more straightforward on the B-side for fans who wanted the groove without the gag. It also shows how much Chet Atkins mattered to Reed’s RCA years—Atkins wasn’t just a producer credit, he was the guy who knew how to frame Reed’s personality so it could work on radio without sanding it down.
Decades later, the song picked up an extra layer of context that Reed couldn’t have planned. He died in 2008 from complications of emphysema. That doesn’t change what “Another Puff” is—a clever, very human account of a habit and the excuses that protect it—but it does underline why the record stuck around. Reed made a funny, believable story out of something that was already becoming a public worry, and he did it in a way only he could: like he’s talking to you across the room, not performing at you from a podium.
Video
Lyric
I know there’s a lotta talk going around today
About cigarette smoking whittling your life away
I’ve seen it and I’ve heard it so many times
That finally it just started to prey on my mind
I guess it scared me a little bit
That’s why I decided I was gonna quit
So while I was sitting here forming my battle plan
I took another puff and turned on the fan
I just sat there in my easy chair
And thought of all the money I’d wasted on cigarettes all these years
I thought how I’d spend the rest of my days
After I kick this habit my body craves
Said to myself this ain’t gonna be so tough
With that little bit of assurance
I took another puff
I took a puff, a puff, then I ripped off another puff
I decided I’d about had about enough
That breaking this habit won’t be too tough
Now I’ve give a lot of thought to this thing
If I didn’t smoke cigarettes I’d feel just like a king
Besides with the price going up every day
I knew I was just throwing all my good money away
You know I ain’t lit one in an hour or so?
Just wanted to make sure I could quit you know
I was thinking maybe I oughta write all this down
Put it in a song kinda circulate it around
Can’t ever tell it might make a hit
And that redneck Hall did a little bit
Can you imagine me a hit songwriter!
Now where’s, where’d I put that cigarette lighter?
After all it’s a habit and a habit you can break
Just a little bit of willpower son that’s all it takes
I said to myself you got to be tough!
And with that little bit of wisdom
I took another puff
I took a puff, and then a puff, then I finally ripped off another puff
And I decided boy this ain’t gonna be tough
Besides I’d just about had enough
I’m about ready to quit this rotten habit anyway
Oh I think they ought to take it offa television
It looks too good! Ow!
I like them skinny ones with the filter
Oh give it to me! Give it to me!
Cigarettes, I say if I quit smoking what’ll I do?
Maybe I’ll eat
Yeah I’ll eat cigarettes
Ah, I love it I love it I love it I love it I love it I love it
Chester B don’t smoke, he smokes logs!
Makes you laugh funny too
Oh my throat’s scratchin’, oh
I wish I could think of something bad to say about cigarettes
Boo on cigarettes, don’t smoke don’t smoke don’t smoke
You quit smoking that’ll leave more for me!
I love it I love it, no I don’t love cigarettes ya know
Don’t misunderstand me I hate cigarettes
Makes ya cough, and when ya don’t smoke it makes ya shake
I don’t know what’s worse, the shake or the cough
I think I’ll make me a coughshake, oh!
Son did you ever smoke?
Oh I remember one time I quit smoking
I quit for three months
My wife left me
So did my children
She took my house and left
It was a mobile home