Song · Robert Cray
“Smoking Gun” by Robert Cray
“Smoking Gun” by Robert Cray appears on 4 radio countdowns from 4 stations between 1991 and 2024. Its best result is #113 on the 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '80s. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #8,382 indie & aaa song of all time and #468 of the '80s.
Robert Cray's "Smoking Gun" came out on Mercury in 1986, a blues of suspicion that turns into something far darker by the end. Cray's co-writer, Bruce Bromberg, took the title from his reading about the Watergate investigation, where the phrase became shorthand for the kind of circumstantial evidence that all but seals a case.
In the song, the smoking gun starts out as proof that his lover has been stepping out. Then the metaphor goes literal: sirens, a racing heart, a man who can't account for what he's done but figures he ought to run, and the implication hangs in the air like gunsmoke. It climbed to No. 2 on Billboard's Album Rock Tracks and No. 22 on the Hot 100, and it earned Cray a 1987 MTV Video Music Award nomination for Best New Artist in a Video.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
Classic Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 458 | WNEW-FM | WNEW Firecracker 500 (1991) | 500 |
| 1997 | 901 | 102.3 WBAB | WBAB Top 1,023 Rock and Roll Songs of All Time (1997) | 1023 |
| 2021 | 113 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '80s | 909 |
| 2024 | 1026 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years | 1049 |
Also listed as: Smokin' Gun.
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