"If You're Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows)" is the title of a song written by Dave Berg

Dave Berg (songwriter)

Dave Berg is an American country music songwriter. His credits include the Number One country hits "Somebody" by Reba McEntire, "If You're Going Through Hell " and "These Are My People" by Rodney Atkins, and "Moments" by Emerson Drive...

, Sam Tate and Annie Tate. It was recorded by American country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 artist Rodney Atkins

Rodney Atkins

Rodney Allan Atkins is an American country music artist. Signed to Curb Records in 1996, he charted his first single on the Billboard country chart that year, but did not release an album until 2003's Honesty, which included the number 4 hit "Honesty ".If You're Going Through Hell, his second...

 and released in January 2006 as the lead-off single to his 2006 album If You're Going Through Hell

If You're Going Through Hell

If You're Going Through Hell is the second studio album released by country singer Rodney Atkins. It has been certified platinum by the RIAA for U.S...

. The song became a number-one hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 chart, spending four weeks at the top, in addition to reaching the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

. "If You're Going Through Hell" was named the number-one song of 2006 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

's year-end chart.

Content

The title was inspired by two quotes: one from Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

("If you're going through Hell, keep going.") and the other, an old Irish toast ("May you be in Heaven five minutes before the devil knows you're dead").

Music video

The music video was directed by Eric Welch. It starts out with Rodney Atkins's car tearing up, and he winds up walking on the road with a string of bad luck throughout the video, like losing his luggage when he throws it in the back of someone's car which winds up taking off on him. The video features Atkins's band and Atkins singing the song under an old gas station sign.

Chart performance

"If You're Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows)" debuted at #53 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for the week of January 21, 2006.
> >

Chart (2006)	Peak position