"The Tijuana Jail" is a song written by Denny Thompson and performed by
The Kingston Trio. It reached #12 on the
US pop chart in 1959.[1]
The song is about a small group of men, who go to an illegal gambling joint, in Tijuana, Mexico, to shoot dice and drink alcohol, when the Mexican authorities arrive to arrest the men, where they are placed in the Tijuana Jail, where they cannot raise the $500 bail to get themselves released. The men conclude by telling their friends to send their mail to the Tijuana Jail.
The melody is loosely based on the traditional folk song "
Midnight Special."[2]
^Prato, Greg.
"Gilby Clarke interview". www.songfacts.com. Retrieved 2022-01-30. "Send my love to my home, my mail to the Tijuana jail" actually came from when I was watching a baseball game and a guy hit a home run, and the announcer said, "Send my mail to the Tijuana jail!" as the home run went out. I went, "Oh, my God, that's really good," and I wrote that down as I was writing that song.