# List of blues standards

Blues standards are blues songs that have attained a high level of recognition due to having been widely performed and recorded. They represent the best known and most interpreted blues songs that are seen as standing the test of time. Blues standards come from different eras and styles, including ragtime-vaudeville, Delta blues, country blues, and urban blues from Chicago and the West Coast.
Many blues songs were developed in American folk music traditions and individual songwriters are sometimes unidentified. Blues historian Gerard Herzhaft noted:
   In the case of very old blues songs, there is the constant recourse to oral tradition that conveyed the tune and even the song itself while at the same time evolving for several decades. This was long before the first recording. The fact that such blues are attributed to Charlie Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Blind Blake often means that they were the first to record them.
Compounding the problem is that, in the earlier days, many blues songs were not copyrighted. Later, the rights were claimed by those who recorded a subsequent version or were managers or record company owners.
Nearly one half of the blues standards listed were first recorded in the pre-World War II acoustic blues era, before music publications tracked the sales of blues records. Many popular renditions, as reflected in the record charts, are more modern versions featuring electric instruments. For example, Robert Johnson and Tampa Red, who were the first to record the most blues standards on the list at four each, performed them as solo or duo acoustic performances. B.B. King and Muddy Waters, with the most standards on the charts at five each, used electric blues-ensemble arrangements.
Music journalist Richie Unterberger commented on the adaptability of blues: "From its inception, the blues has always responded to developments in popular music as a whole: the use of guitar and piano in American folk and gospel, the percussive rhythms of jazz, the lyrics of Tin Pan Alley, and the widespread use of amplification and electric instruments all helped shape the evolution of the blues." Blues standards that appeared on the main charts in the 1960s and 1970s often had been recorded by rhythm and blues, soul, and rock musicians. Each song listed has been identified by five or more music writers as a blues standard. Spellings and titles may differ; the most common are used.

## List

* A
* B
* C
* D
* E
* F
* G
* H
* I
* K
* L
* M
* N
* R
* S
* T
* W
* Y
List of blues standards, with title, first recorded by, year, charting single(s), and references :
| Title | First recorded by | Year | Charting single(s) by |
| "Ain't Nobody's Business" | Anna Meyers with the Original Memphis Five | 1922 | Jimmy Witherspoon (1949) H$_2$O featuring Billie (1996 as "Nobody's Business") |
| "All Your Love (I Miss Loving)" | Otis Rush | 1958 | — |
| "Baby, Please Don't Go" | Big Joe Williams | 1935 | The Orioles (1952) Them (1964) Amboy Dukes (1968) AC/DC (1975) |
| "Baby What You Want Me to Do" | Jimmy Reed | 1960 | Jimmy Reed (1960) Etta James (1964) |
| "Blues with a Feeling" | Rabon Tarrant | 1947 | Little Walter (1953) |
| "Boom Boom" | John Lee Hooker | 1962 | John Lee Hooker (1962) The Animals (1964) |
| "Born Under a Bad Sign" | Albert King | 1967 | Albert King (1967) William Bell (1969) |
| "Caldonia" | Louis Jordan | 1945 | Louis Jordan (1945) Erskine Hawkins (1945) Sugar Chile Robinson (1949) James Brown (1964) |
| "Catfish Blues" | Robert Petway | 1941 | Muddy Waters (1951 as "Still a Fool") |
| "Crosscut Saw" | Tommy McClennan | 1941 | Albert King (1967) |
| "Crossroads" | Robert Johnson | 1936 | Cream (1969) |
| "Don't You Lie to Me" | Tampa Red | 1940 | — |
| "Driftin' Blues" | Johnny Moore's Three Blazers | 1945 | Johnny Moore's Three Blazers (1945) Bobby Bland (1968) |
| "Dust My Broom" | Robert Johnson | 1936 | Elmore James (1952) |
| "Every Day I Have the Blues" | Pinetop Sparks | 1935 | Lowell Fulson (1950) Joe Williams (1952 & 1955) B.B. King (1955) Billy Stewart (1966) |
| "Farther Up the Road" | Bobby Bland | 1957 | Bobby Bland (1957) |
| "Five Long Years" | Eddie Boyd | 1952 | Eddie Boyd (1952) Junior Parker (1959) |
| "Forty-Four" | Roosevelt Sykes | 1929 | — |
| "Goin' Down Slow" | St. Louis Jimmy Oden | 1941 | Bobby Bland (1974) |
| "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" | Sonny Boy Williamson I | 1937 | Smokey Hogg (1950 as "Little School Girl") |
| "Got My Mojo Working" | Muddy Waters | 1956 | Jimmy Smith (1966) |
| "Help Me" | Sonny Boy Williamson II | 1963 | Sonny Boy Williamson II (1963) |
| "Hide Away" | Freddie King | 1961 | Freddie King (1961) King Curtis (1964) |
| "Hoochie Coochie Man" | Muddy Waters | 1954 | Muddy Waters (1954) Jimmy Smith (1966) |
| "How Long Blues" | Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell | 1928 | — |
| "I Can't Quit You Baby" | Otis Rush | 1956 | Otis Rush (1956) |
| "I'm a Man" | Bo Diddley | 1955 | Bo Diddley (1955) Muddy Waters (1955 as "Mannish Boy") The Yardbirds (1965) |
| "I'm Ready" | Muddy Waters | 1954 | Muddy Waters (1954) |
| "It Hurts Me Too" | Tampa Red | 1940 | Tampa Red (1949 as "When Things Go Wrong") Elmore James (1965) |
| "Kansas City" | Little Willie Littlefield | 1952 | Wilbert Harrison (1959) Little Richard (1959) Hank Ballard & the Midnighters (1959) Trini Lopez (1963) James Brown (1967) |
| "Key to the Highway" | Charlie Segar | 1940 | Little Walter (1958) |
| "Killing Floor" | Howlin' Wolf | 1964 | — |
| "Little Red Rooster" | Howlin' Wolf | 1961 | Sam Cooke (1963) The Rolling Stones (1964) |
| "Mean Old World" | T-Bone Walker | 1942 | Little Walter (1953) |
| "My Babe" | Little Walter | 1955 | Little Walter (1955) Roy Head (1966) Willie Mitchell (1969) |
| "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" | Bessie Smith | 1929 | Nina Simone (1960) Bobby Womack (1973 as "Nobody Wants You When You're Down and Out") |
| "Reconsider Baby" | Lowell Fulson | 1954 | Lowell Fulson (1954) |
| "Rock Me Baby" | Lil' Son Jackson | 1950 | B.B. King (1964) |
| "Rollin' and Tumblin'" | Hambone Willie Newbern | 1929 | Canned Heat (1967) Johnny Winter (1969) |
| "See See Rider" | Ma Rainey | 1924 | Bea Booze (1942) Chuck Willis (1957 as "C.C. Rider") LaVern Baker (1962) Bobby Powell (1965) The Animals (1966) |
| "Sitting on Top of the World" | Mississippi Sheiks | 1930 | — |
| "The Sky Is Crying" | Elmore James | 1960 | Elmore James (1960) |
| "Spoonful" | Howlin' Wolf | 1960 | Etta James & Harvey Fuqua (1961) |
| "Stormy Monday" | T-Bone Walker | 1948 | T-Bone Walker (1948) Bobby Bland (1962) Latimore (1973) |
| "Sugar Mama" | Tampa Red | 1934 | — |
| "Sweet Home Chicago" | Robert Johnson | 1936 | Junior Parker (1958) |
| "Sweet Little Angel" | Lucille Bogan | 1930 | B.B. King (1956) |
| "That's All Right" | Jimmy Rogers | 1950 | — |
| "The Things That I Used to Do" | Guitar Slim | 1953 | Guitar Slim (1953) James Brown (1964) |
| "The Thrill Is Gone" | Roy Hawkins | 1951 | Roy Hawkins (1951) B.B. King (1970) Aretha Franklin (1970) |
| "Trouble in Mind" | Bertha "Chippie" Hill | 1926 | Dinah Washington (1952) Nina Simone (1961) |
| "Walkin' Blues" | Robert Johnson | 1936 | Muddy Waters (1948 as "I Feel Like Going Home") |
| "Worried Life Blues" | Big Maceo | 1941 | Big Maceo (1945 as "Things Have Changed") B.B. King (1970) Junior Parker (1970) |
| "You've Got to Love Her with a Feeling" | Tampa Red | 1938 | Freddie King (1961) |
| A dash ( — ) denotes a song that did not appear on a record chart. |||||