This is another cut from the Merle Haggard “Down Every Road 1962-1994” 4 disc set.  Read more about it at my post from yesterday, here.  “Sam Hill” is from Merle’s “Strangers” album, his debut studio album, released on September 27, 1965, by Capitol Records. “Sam Hill,” for example, had peaked at number forty-five after its June 1964 release. The song, written by friend and mentor Tommy Collins, was not one of Haggard’s favorites, with the singer recalling in his 1999 memoir My House of Memories, “I’m glad ‘Sam Hill’ wasn’t a big hit. I didn’t much like the song and had it been a giant hit I would have hated to have sung it for the next fifty years.”

There’s a certain hill outside of town called Sam Hill
And a certain guy used to go there every day
They said a certain girl lived up in Sam Hill
Aw, a pretty girl, not hep to city ways

This certain guy would come down the hill a smilin’
Headed back to town at the crack of dawn
And he had ’em all a wonderin’ what he was doin’
Yeah, wonderin’ what in Sam Hill’s goin’ on

We knew this certain guy was not a goldminer
Cause he never took a shovel or a pick
He only took a little box of candy
And disappeared in Sam Hill mighty quick

We tried to follow him to his destination
But he had a secret path and soon he was gone
And he had us all a wonderin’ what he was doin’
Yeah, wonderin’ what in Sam Hill’s goin’ on

I know that you have wondered too about Sam Hill
You’ve probably asked “What in Sam Hill’s goin’ on?”
All I can say in answer to your question
Is the goin’s on are still goin’ on

This certain guy’s still takin’ up his candy
He’s 99 and all his youth is gone
But he climbs that hill and still comes down a smilin’
And we’re wonderin’ what in Sam Hill’s goin’ on
Wish I knew
What in Sam Hill’s goin’ on
He won’t tell us’
What in Sam Hill’s goin’ on
He just snickers
What in Sam Hill’s goin’ on

Songwriters: Tommy Collins