King of the Road, a Classic Train Song from Family Garden Trains^TM

Roger Miller's best-known song was probably "King of the Road," about a hobo who knows how to live cheap and how to get around the country free. Back when Miller was a virtual unknown, Dean Martin's producer thought the song's laid back tone would fit Dino's style, and it did - making one of Dino's biggest hits. Eventually Miller came to be better known with other tunes. But he had his own hit with "King of the Road," and it's one of the two songs he's best remembered for. (Little Green Apples being the other one) A lot of other folks have had hits with it as well, including Randy Travis, whose rough, throaty voice seems perfectly suited for it.

Some Miller fans seem to resent the fact that other people had hits with Roger's song, but Miller made money every time it was played on the radio, so he didn't mind at all.

Here are Miller's lyrics:

Trailers for sale or rent
Rooms to let...fifty cents.
No phone, no pool, no pets
I ain't got no cigarettes
Ah, but..two hours of pushin' broom
Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room
I'm a man of means by no means
King of the road.

Third boxcar, midnight train
Destination...Bangor, Maine.
Old worn out suits and shoes,
I don't pay no union dues,
I smoke old stogies I have found
Short, but not too big around
I'm a man of means by no means
King of the road.

I know every engineer on every train
All of their children, and all of their names
And every handout in every town
And every lock that ain't locked
When no one's around.

I sing,
Trailers for sale or rent
Rooms to let, fifty cents
No phone, no pool, no pets
I ain't got no cigarettes
Ah, but, two hours of pushin' broom
Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room
I'm a man of means by no means
King of the road.

MP3s from Amazon

The point of this section and the You-Tube Link section below is to give you a sense of how various artists attack this song. If you like one of the clips in this section, it doesn't cost that much to download it.

When I started these pages, I set up a bunch of little widgets here that would let you play clips right on the Amazon site without leaving the page. But every time a publisher changed the product number of the album they linked to, the widget would break and something silly would show up in the links instead. So I've changed things so the clips will play regardless, and if you like what you hear, the orange button should take you to that song's page on Amazon. If it doesn't you can always search the "Digital Downloads" section by the artist and song name, and chances are you'll find wherever the publisher has moved it this time. Sorry for any confusion.

King of the Road - Roger Miller - the original artist.
King of the Road - Dean Martin - who made this song famous
King of the Road - Randy Travis - whose faithful cover was one of the best.

More Sound Clips of This Song

• Rube Rubin and the Westeners - A classic country renditon.

• Boots Randolph - Vintage Boots, doing what he did best.

You-Tube Videos of This Song

The first video is an appearance of Roger Williams on the Johnny Cash show.

The second is a 1990 television appearance.

The third is a Randy Travis/Josh Turner live performance.

The fourth includes a recording of a vinyl with Dean Martin sing his version, the first one many people heard. Dino knew a great song when he heard one.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5pQGtzePUA

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk_hPTN50UE

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR6tKygCdj8

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXZD2-cvrag

New for 2014! Train Song Discussion Forum

When we get a question about train songs, we post it there, so other people can see it and respond if they want to. Of course, if you're signed up, you can post questions and replies yourself.

If you want to jump to the forum to see it and read other folks' posts, click here.

If you want to sign up to add to the discussions, click: here. It's a manual signup, because it's the only way we can block hundreds of robospam attempts a week, so it may take us a couple days to get you signed in, but once you are in, you can post in any of the forums.

Click here to return to the Classic Train Songs page.

Whatever else you get out of our pages, I hope you enjoy your music and figure out how to make enjoyable music for those around you as well.

And please stay in touch!

    - Paul Race