A coworker of mine has never heard of B.B. King. This must be remedied. In response, I’ve created “An Evolution of Blues” compilation. It’s not a definitive list and I had to question if certain songs could truly be considered blues tracks (when they’d likely first be catalogued as jazz, rock ballad, folk, country or downtempo, to name a few).
If you’re already familiar with blues music, you’ll notice that more than half of these songs have been covered (or are covers). I found myself browsing the Second Hand Songs database quite a bit during this process. Several “essential” artists have been omitted, particularly from the 50s and 60s—this list is geared towards a blues “beginner”, so I only picked a few songs from each decade for the sake of brevity. I won’t say much else about this list. Hopefully it will speak for itself and spark some controversy.
I chose many of these after running across Martin Scorsese’s 5-disc blues compilation (a companion piece to his 7-part PBS series, The Blues). While I’ve never seen the series, I know that several musicians guided Scorsese’s selections, so they’re much more qualified than I am to recommend blues songs. I couldn’t even identify a 12-bar blues song.
In chronological order (writing credits in parenthesis):
- Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground – Blind Willie Johnson, 1927
- Traveling Riverside Blues – Robert Johnson, 1937
- All of Me – Billie Holiday, 1941 (Gerald Marks, Seymour Simons, 1931)
- Catfish Blues – Robert Petway, 1941
- Ain’t Nobody’s Business, Part One – Jimmy Witherspoon, 1949 (Porter Grainger, circ. 1921)
- That’s All Right Mama – Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, 1949
- Beale Street Blues – Louis Armstrong, 1954 (W.C. Handy, 1916)
- Folsom Prison Blues – Johnny Cash, 1955
- Who Do You Love? – Bo Diddley, 1956
- Blue Monday – Fats Domino, 1956
- Love Me – Elvis, 1956 (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, circ. 1954)
- Johnny B. Goode – Chuck Berry, 1958
- Spoonful – Howlin’ Wolf, 1960 (Willie Dixon)
- At Last – Etta James, 1961 (Mack Gordon, Harry Warren, 1941)
- The Times They Are A-Changin’ – Bob Dylan, 1964
- Wang Dang Doodle – Koko Taylor, 1966 (Willie Dixon, 1960)
- Lilac Wine – Nina Simone, 1966 (James Shelton, 1950)
- Red House – Jimi Hendrix, 1966
- While My Guitar Gently Weeps – The Beatles, 1968
- Piece of My Heart – Big Brother and the Holding Company [Janis Joplin], 1968 (Jerry Ragovoy, Bert Berns, 1967)
- Crossroads – Cream, 1968 (Robert Johnson, 1937)
- Black Magic Woman – Fleetwood Mac, 1968
- The Lemon Song – Led Zeppelin, 1969 (Howlin’ Wolf, 1964)
- Roadhouse Blues – The Doors, 1970
- The Thrill Is Gone – B.B. King, 1970 (Rick Darnell, Roy Hawkins, 1951)
- Lookin’ Out My Back Door – Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1970
- Move It On Over – George Thorogood & The Destroyers, 1978 (Hank Williams, 1947)
- Pride and Joy – Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, 1983
- She Talks to Angels – The Black Crowes, 1990
- November Rain – Guns N’ Roses, 1991
- Am I Wrong? – Keb’ Mo’, 1994
- Rehab – Amy Winehouse, 2006
- Bold As Love – John Mayer, 2006 (Jimi Hendrix, 1967)
- 300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues – The White Stripes, 2007
- The Rip – Portishead, 2008
- Scumbag Blues – Them Crooked Vultures, 2009
- Tighten Up – The Black Keys, 2010