"Walking in Memphis" is a song composed and originally recorded by the American singer-songwriter Marc Cohn, for whom it remains his signature song. Cohn said the song is "100 percent autobiographical". He described it as a song about "a Jewish gospel-music-lover", and as "a pretty literal transcription of a visit I made ... in 1986. I went to Graceland, I heard Al Green preach the gospel, I saw W. C. Handy's statue. But the song is about more than just a place, it's about a kind of spiritual awakening, one of those trips where you're different when you leave." It reflects on Cohn's experience as a Jew who feels the Gospel spirit of Memphis.

The last verse refers to Cohn's inspirational encounter with singer Muriel Wilkins, with whom he performed "Amazing Grace". This all culminates in the iconic lyric, " 'Tell me are you a Christian, child?' and I said, 'Ma'am, I am tonight!' " Cohn finds it funny that many listeners infer from the lyric that he is a Christian or born again. "But to me," Cohn said, "that line could have only been written by a Jew. It's such a Jewish line, and I love that."

Cohn reached number 13 in 1991 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was the only Top 40 hit for Cohn. "Walking in Memphis" has since been remade several times, notably in 1995 by Cher (number 11 UK) and in 2003 by Lonestar (number 8 C&W/ number 61 Hot 100).

Marc Cohn was inspired to write "Walking in Memphis" by a 1985 visit to the Memphis, Tennessee area: he was then based in New York City working as a session singer while pursuing a recording contract - "(quote) One night while listening to all of my demos, I came to the realization that I shouldn’t be signed, because I didn’t have any great songs yet. My voice was good and the demos were interesting, but the songs were only just okay. I was 28 years old and not in love with my songs. James Taylor had written 'Fire and Rain' when he was 18, and Jackson Browne wrote 'These Days' when he was only 17. I thought: 'I'm already ten years older than these geniuses. It's never going to happen for me.' So it was a pretty desperate time, and I went to Memphis with that struggle at the forefront of my mind." Cohn made his first excursion to Memphis after reading an interview with James Taylor in which Taylor stated he overcame writer's block by "go[ing] somewhere I’ve never been, hoping to find some idea I wouldn’t get just by sitting at home": Cohn emulated Taylor, choosing Memphis as his destination - "I always knew it was a place I had to visit because so much of my favorite music came from there. From Al Green, Ann Peebles, and everything on Hi Records, to Elvis Presley, Isaac Hayes, David Porter, and the Stax catalog, an almost endless stream of brilliance and soul came out of Memphis. I was aware early on that...there was something going on in Memphis that was utterly inexplicable. It was part of what made me want to be a musician in the first place."

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