About The Song
“That’s How I Got to Memphis” was written by Tom T. Hall and first appeared on his 1969 album *Ballad of Forty Dollars and His Other Great Songs*. The song quickly became one of Hall’s most enduring compositions and is now regarded as a country music standard. Although Hall’s own recording did not chart as a major single, the track found wide recognition through later covers and continued performances.
The lyric follows a straightforward narrative. The singer explains that if a person loves someone deeply enough, they will follow that person wherever they go. In this case, the journey has brought him to Memphis in search of a former lover. He asks strangers if they have seen her, describing her appearance and the quiet determination that carried him there. Hall’s plainspoken style and attention to everyday detail give the story its lasting power.
Hall, often called “The Storyteller,” built much of his reputation on songs that captured ordinary lives with clarity and restraint. “That’s How I Got to Memphis” fits that approach. The recording features a simple country arrangement that keeps the focus on the vocal and the unfolding tale rather than elaborate production. The song’s structure allows the narrative to unfold naturally across the verses.
The composition gained broader commercial attention when Bobby Bare recorded it in 1970 under the slightly shortened title “How I Got to Memphis.” Bare’s version reached number three on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and helped introduce the song to a larger audience. In the decades that followed, it has been covered by a wide range of artists, including Deryl Dodd, Kelly Willis, and Charley Crockett, confirming its place in the country repertoire.
By the late 1960s Hall was establishing himself as both a successful recording artist and a prolific songwriter. Songs such as “Ballad of Forty Dollars” and “The Year That Clayton Delaney Died” further defined his style. “That’s How I Got to Memphis” stands among the early examples of the narrative approach that would characterize much of his work.
Within Tom T. Hall’s catalogue, the song remains one of his most frequently revisited and widely performed pieces. Its combination of clear storytelling, emotional directness, and lasting appeal has secured its status as a classic of the country genre.
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Lyric
If you love somebody enough
You’ll follow wherever they go
That’s how I got to Memphis
That’s how I got to Memphis
If you love somebody enough
You’ll go where your heart wants to go
That’s how I got to Memphis
That’s how I got to Memphis
I know if you’d seen her you’d tell me ’cause you are my friend
I’ve got to find her and find out the trouble she’s in
If you tell me that she’s not here
I’ll follow the trail of her tears
That’s how I got to Memphis
That’s how I got to Memphis
She would get mad and she used to say
That she’d come back to Memphis someday
That’s how I got to Memphis
That’s how I got to Memphis
I haven’t eaten a bite
Or slept for three days and nights
That’s how I got to Memphis
That’s how I got to Memphis
I’ve got to find her and tell her that I love her so
I’ll never rest ’til I find out why she had to go
Thank you for your precious time
Forgive me if I start to cryin’
That’s how I got to Memphis (x8)