"Waiting for a Train" is a song written and recorded by Jimmie Rodgers and released by the Victor Talking Machine Company as the flipside of "Blue Yodel No.

It became one of Rodgers' most popular songs, as the Wall Street Crash of 1929 made the composition relatable to everyday life during the Great Depression.

The origins of the song were traced by D. K. Wilgus, a music scholar and professor at UCLA, to a mid-nineteenth-century broadside ballad printed by Catnach Press in London, entitled "Standing on the Platform", with the subtitle "Waiting for the train".

The song recounted the story of a man who met a woman at a railway station, who later falsely accused him of assaulting her.

Sociologists Guy Benton Johnson and Howard W. Odum collected verses of the song during their field research of black culture in the Southern United States in the late 1910s.

The composition was at the time in the public domain, but with the changes in the lyrics and music, Peer decided he would be able to copyright it under Rodgers' name.

[13] Rodgers arrived in Atlanta, Georgia, a week before his recording session for the Victor Talking Machine Company was scheduled.

While experiencing the night life of the city at a speakeasy, Rodgers encountered a jazz combo composed of Dean Bryan (guitar), C. L. Hutchinson (cornet), James Rikard (clarinet), George MacMillan (bass fiddle) and John Westbrook (steel guitar).

The names of the compositions were published with letters of the same size and font by record companies, accompanied by the catalog number of the releases.

[22] The disk sold 365,000 copies upon its release, and became Rodgers' second-best-selling recording,[7] behind the pairing of "Blue Yodel No.

[24] In respect to Rodgers' role, critic Dave Marsh has pointed out: "it was Rodgers—far more than Woody Guthrie—who was the true voice of the Depression".

[26] Rolling Stone later considered the film to be "one of the first-ever country music videos" and remarked upon Rodgers' understanding of the importance of trains as the subject of songs in the genre.

[31] Though it was at the time already considered a traditional song, Prince Albert Hunt claimed that Rodgers copied his record.

[33] In May 1929, Gene Autry released his own cover of the song,[31] with singer Frankie Marvin providing the whistle sound.

Based on the aggregate score of 73 by operators, disk-jockeys and record dealers, Billboard deemed Tubb's version on its scale as "good".

Cash ordered the lights of the concert hall to be turned off, so he could be only illuminated during his entrance by a lantern that belonged to Rodgers.

[40] George Harrison cited Rodgers as one of his early influences, and credited the pairing of "Blue Yodel No.

[41] Harrison would musically quote part of "Waiting for a Train" in his track "Rocking Chair in Hawaii" on his final album Brainwashed.

[48] Lewis started to play the song during his childhood upon request of his father, Elmo, and kept performing it as part of his frequent set numbers.