Eddie Boyd, a Chicago blues pianist, songwriter, and steel mill worker, came up with a true-to-life blues in 1952 that hit home with many a working man in “Five Long Years,” a No. 1 record [...]

In honor of the 2011 Robert Johnson Centennial celebrations, “Love in Vain” joins several Johnson classics that have already been enshrined in the Blues Hall of Fame. Johnson's poignant original was cut in 1937 in [...]

All Your Love (I Miss Loving)' is the third of Otis Rush's classic Cobra singles to earn Hall of Fame status and the second from the same 1958 session that featured both Rush and Ike [...]

Skip James' 1931 recordings for the Paramount label in Grafton, Wisconsin, all but vanished after their limited release during the Depression, now ranking among the rarest and highest-priced records on the collectors' market. But through [...]

Reconsider Baby,' sometimes known under other titles after the song's opening line ('So long, oh, how I hate to see you go'), was Lowell Fulson's wistful goodbye and plea to a departing lover, with a [...]

Jimmy Witherspoon applied his ample pipes to revivals of several blues standards from the 1920s and '30s during his November 1947 sessions for Supreme Records in Los Angeles. “Ain't Nobody's Business” was first recorded in [...]

One of most enduring songs of pre-World War II blues, 'Sitting on Top of the World' was recorded by the duo of singer-guitarist Walter Vinson and fiddler Lonnie Chatmon, who performed as the Mississippi Sheiks. [...]

Louis Jordan was the biggest African-American star of his era thanks to his infectious, good-time, boogie-based blues performances, in the studio, in person, and on the screen. Jordan has been called the father of rock [...]

At the age of 23, Otis Rush was able to mine the essence of deep blues with his classic single 'Double Trouble' for the Cobra label of Chicago in 1958. The minor-key masterpiece depicted a [...]

My Babe' was a No. 1 rhythm & blues hit for Chicago blues singer-harmonica player Little Walter in 1955 on Chess Records' subsidiary Checker label. With Robert Jr. Lockwood's memorable guitar riffs propelling the arrangement, [...]