“I’m a Man,” the first song recorded by Bo Diddley in 1955, became the flip side of his debut single, the eponymous “Bo Diddley,” which was selected as a Blues Hall of Fame classic in [...]

The exuberant “Roll ’Em Pete” was the first studio recording of Big Joe Turner’s powerful pipes and Pete Johnson’s rollicking boogie-woogie piano. Recorded in New York City on December 30, 1938, a week after the [...]

The original rendition of “See See Rider,” which became a standard recorded by countless artists in many genres, was a low-moaning version by the “Mother of the Blues,” Ma Rainey, in October 1924 in New [...]