This article marks the anniversary of the death of Sam Hogin, a Nashville songwriter who died on 9 August 2004 at the age of 54 from complications of diabetes. Though not a performer himself, Hogin spent more than 15 years as a staff writer for Sony Tree Publishing and was remembered by peers such as Kix Brooks and Don Cook as a gifted, unassuming lyricist whose work shaped some of country music's biggest hits.

Hogin co-wrote Don Williams' "I Believe in You" with British songwriter Roger Cook, which reached number one in 1980 and became Williams' only career Top 40 pop hit, also charting internationally. He earned a second Country Music Association Song of the Year nomination in 1998 for "A Broken Wing", co-written with James House and Phil Barnhart, which became Martina McBride's second number-one single after its release on her 1997 album Evolution.