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From Wikipedia:
‘Every Day I Have the Blues’ is a blues song that has been performed in a variety of styles. An early version of the song is attributed to Pinetop Sparks and his brother Milton (or Marion). It was first performed in the taverns of St. Louis by the Sparks brothers and was recorded July 28, 1935 by Pinetop with Henry Townsend on guitar. The song is a twelve-bar blues that features Pinetop’s piano and falsetto vocal. The opening verse includes the line ‘Every day, every day I have the blues.’
After a reworking of the song by Memphis Slim in 1949, it became a blues standard with renditions recorded by numerous artists. Four different versions of ‘Every Day I Have the Blues’ have reached the Top Ten of the Billboard R&B chart and two—one by the Count Basie Orchestra with Joe Williams and one by B.B. King—have received Grammy Hall of Fame Awards.
Until recently, I thought this song was written by the great Memphis Slim (sometimes I see “the great” in front of someone’s name and I go “yeah, right,” but I just can’t see writing the performing name of Peter Chatman without using it; this coming Saturday, September 3, will be the 101st anniversary of his birth). When I saw the Pinetop Sparks version on YouTube, I simultaneously discovered that Memphis Slim rewrote it in 1949, calling it “Nobody Loves Me.” That’s the one “all” subsequent versions picked up on. It’s sometimes referred to as his theme song or his signature song, he calls it his breadwinner, as you’re about to hear if you’ll listen to this (from the American Folk Blues Festival, 1963).
The following videos are most often in chronological order, but I further decided to keep all the work of a single artist together so, for example, Joe Williams’ 1981 recording directly follows his 1955 version, displacing B.B. King’s 1955 recording.
Pinetop Sparks with Henry Townsend on guitar, “Everyday I Have the Blues” (this is another odd but common way to spell the first two words of the title), 1935
Memphis Slim, “Nobody Loves Me” (“Every Day I Have the Blues”), 1949
Lowell Fulson (guitar and vocals) with Lloyd Glenn (piano), “Every Day I Have the Blues,” 1950
Lowell Fulson, “Every Day I Have the Blues,” date unknown (after 1950)
Joe Williams with the King Kolax Orchestra, “Every Day I Have the Blues,” 1953
The opening track of Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings, “Every Day I Have the Blues,” 1955
Joe Williams with the Count Basie Orchestra live at Carnegie Hall, “Every Day I Have the Blues,” 1981
B.B. King, “Every Day I Have the Blues” (with members of the Count Basie Band), 1955
B.B. King (guitar, vocals), “Every Day I Have the Blues,” with Bobby Forte, Johnny Board (tenors), Leo Lauchie (bass), Duke Jethro (piano), Sonny Freeman (drums), from Live at the Regal, recorded November 21, 1964
B.B. King, “Every Day I Have the Blues” (looks like late ‘60s or early ‘70s)
B.B. King, “Every Day I Have the Blues” (guitar lesson), released 2002, looks like they were produced in the ‘90s (there are lots of these B.B. King lessons online, and Son Seals too, all posted by the same person).
Elmore James, “Every Day I Have the Blues,” recorded in New York in late 1962, early 1963, not long before before May 24, 1963, when he died. It looks like the first release was 1965.
Snooks Eaglin (vocal and acoustic guitar), “Every Day I Have the Blues,” early-mid-60s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQe3us7ebOYJimmy Rushing (a/k/a Mr. Five by Five, vocal) Zoot Sims, Al Cohn (tenors), Dave Frishberg (piano), John Beal (bass), Mousie Alexander (drums) “and others” from The Scene Live in New York, around 1965
Billy Stewart, a very up soul version of “Every Day I Have the Blues” on Chess, 1966
Jimmy McGriff (organ) with Kenny Burrell and Thornell Schwartz (guitars) and big band, “Every Day I Have the Blues,” from Count Basie tribute, 1966
Santana (or were they still called the Santana Blues Band at this point?), “Every Day I Have the Blues,” from 1967 (according to notes on Latin Rock Fusions CD, released 1993). Any Santana experts?
Albert King, “Every Day I Have the Blues,” live at the Fillmore West, June 27, 1968
Kenny Burrell, “Every Day (I Have the Blues),” from Blues—The Common Ground, 1968 (personnel include a few people from Count Basie’s band on horns and Herbie Hancock on piano—all of Kenny Burrell’s ‘60s and ‘70s albums are great)
This isn’t the first time T-Bone Walker recorded this tune; that was in the ‘50s. Here’s a spectacular version with Chuck Berry, Lafayette Leake (piano) and the Aces (Louis Myers, guitar; Dave Myers, bass; Fred Below, drums), Montreux Jazz Festival, probably late ‘60s.
T-Bone Walker, “Every Day I Have the Blues” (contrast with the other one from 1969, directly below), 1969
T-Bone Walker, “Every Day I Have the Blues” (a brassier version than the one directly above), from good feelin’, 1969
Fleetwood Mac (Jeremy Spencer, vocal and lead guitar), J.T. Brown (tenor), “Every Day I Have the Blues,” from the must-hear double album Fleetwood Mac in Chicago (a/k/a Blues Jam in Chicago), recorded in the Chess Ter-Mar Studios, Chicago, January 1969.
Buddy Guy & Junior Wells, “Every Day I Have the Blues,” live, probably late ‘60s or early ‘70s
James Brown, “Everyday I Have the Blues” (with the Louis Bellson Orchestra) from Soul on Top, 1970
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZS-ctZLUeE’Joe Willie Wilkins (vocal and guitar), “Every Day I Have the Blues,” recorded live in Memphis, Tennessee with either Greg “Fingers” Taylor, Sonny Blake or Roland “Boy Blue” Hayes (harp), between 1972 and 1976
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdOvzi4mXTwDownchild Blues Band (Canadian blues-rock band), “Every Day I Have the Blues,” from Straight Up, 1973
Marshall Tucker Band, “Everyday (I Have the Blues),” live from Where We All Belong, 1974
Otis Rush (vocal and guitar) with Jimmy Dawkins (guitar), Willie Mabon (piano), Jerome Van Jones (organ), James Green (bass), Bob Plunkett (drums), “Every Day I Have the Blues” from Screaming and Crying, 1974
Otis Rush, “Every Day I Have the Blues,” live in Japan from So Many Roads, 1975
Otis Rush with Luther Allison and Eric Clapton, “Every Day I Have the Blues,” live at Montreux, 1986
Stevie Ray Vaughan, “Every Day I Have the Blues” (first song), live at Stubb’s BBQ, Lubbock, TX, 1977
Chuck Berry from French TV (late ‘70s-early ‘80s?)
Chuck Norris, “Every Day I Have the Blues,” live in Sweden, June 25, 1980, from The Los Angeles Flash
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown & Katie Webster, “Every Day I Have the Blues,” live in Hasmburg, Germany, April 16, 1983
Son Seals, “Every Day I Have the Blues,” from BET Jazz’s short-lived Chicago Blues Jam, filmed at Buddy Guy’s Legends, early ‘90s
Professor Longhair “Everyday I Have The Blues,” live in Germany, 1992
Eric Clapton, “Every Day I Have the Blues,” live at Hyde Park, London, 1997
Randy Crawford (the singer of “Street Life”) and Joe Sample (of the Jazz Crusaders, who backed her on “Street Life”), 2008
Two weeks ago, I said more people covered this than “Mother Earth,” but at the time I didn’t realize just how many more. Far too many were called “John Mayer covers.”
* * * * * P O S T S C R I P T * * * * *
My work schedule has become a lot more intense. For the few of you who might look for this post on Thursdays, I may cut back (fortunately, yesterday there was nothing to do and I was able to listen to some music and put this together). If I miss a Thursday, I’m going to wait till the following Thursday to post. I think my next one or two are going to focus on the Rolling Stones and their sources. If you have any suggestions for a song or a group, please let me know. Thanks!
Don D.
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