"Set 'Em Up Joe" is a 1988 single by Vern Gosdin

Vern Gosdin

Vern Gosdin was an American country music singer. He idolized The Louvin Brothers and The Blue Sky Boys as a young man and sang in a gospel quartet called The Gosdin Brothers. An inheritor of the soulful honky tonk style of Lefty Frizzell and Merle Haggard, Gosdin was nicknamed "The Voice" by his...

, who co-wrote the song with Dean Dillon

Dean Dillon

Dean Dillon is an American country music artist. Between 1982 and 1993, Dillon recorded six studio albums on various labels, and charted several singles on the Billboard country charts. Although he has not charted since 1993, Dillon has continued to write several hit songs for other artists, most...

, Hank Cochran

Hank Cochran

Garland Perry "Hank" Cochran was an American country music singer and songwriter. Starting during the 1960s, Cochran was a prolific songwriter in the genre, including major hits by Patsy Cline, Ray Price, Eddy Arnold and others...

, and Buddy Cannon

Buddy Cannon

Buddy Cannon is an American country music songwriter and record producer. Active since the late 1970s, he is known primarily for his work as Kenny Chesney's record producer, for which he won the Academy of Country Music's Producer of the Year award in 2006.Along with Bill Anderson and Jamey...

. "Set 'Em Up Joe" was a tribute song to Ernest Tubb

Ernest Tubb

Ernest Dale Tubb , nicknamed the Texas Troubadour, was an American singer and songwriter and one of the pioneers of country music. His biggest career hit song, "Walking the Floor Over You" , marked the rise of the honky tonk style of music...

 and was Vern Gosdin's second number one on the country chart. The single went to number one for one week and spent a total of fifteen weeks within the Top 40. In 2010, this song was covered by Jamey Johnson

Jamey Johnson

Jamey Johnson is an American Grammy Award nominated country music artist. Signed to BNA Records in 2005, Johnson made his debut with his single "The Dollar," the title track to his 2006 album The Dollar...

 on his album, The Guitar Song

The Guitar Song

Upon its release, The Guitar Song received generally positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 91, based on 9 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".Thom...

.

Chart performance

Chart (1988)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles	1
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	2