3 O'Clock Blues

"Three O'Clock Blues"
Single by Lowell Fulson
B-side "I'm Wild about You Baby"
Released 1948 (1948)
Format 10" 78 rpm record
Recorded Oakland, California
June 1946 (1946-06)
Genre Blues
Length 03:05
Label Down Town (Cat no. 2002)
Writer(s) Lowell Fulson
Lowell Fulson singles chronology
"Blues and Misery"/ "Jam that Boogie"
(1948)		 "Three O'Clock Blues"
(1948)		 "Come Back Baby"
(1949)

"3 O'Clock Blues" or "Three O'Clock Blues"[1][2] is slow twelve-bar blues recorded by Lowell Fulson in 1946. When it was released in 1948, it became Fulson's first hit.[3] In 1952, "3 O'Clock Blues" also became B.B. King's first hit as well as "one of the top-selling R&B records of 1952".[4]

Original song

Lowell Fulson recorded "Three O'Clock Blues" during his first recording session in June 1946 for Oakland, California-based record producer Bob Geddins. Fulson, who sang and played guitar, was accompanied by his brother Martin on second guitar. Together they produced "some of the most memorable post-war country blues performances".[5]

The song lyrics start out "as an insomniac's lament, but end up a with a weepy farewell more suited to a suicide note":[6]

Well now it's three o'clock in the morning, and I can't even close my eyes ...
Goodbye everybody, I believe this is the end ...

By the time of the record's release two years later in 1948, Fulson's style had already evolved into a West Coast blues style typified by his hit recordings for Downbeat and Swing Time, such as "Every Day I Have the Blues" and "Blue Shadows". Nonetheless, "Three O'Clock Blues" became a hit, reaching #6 in the R&B chart.

B.B. King version

B.B. King recorded "3 O'Clock Blues" for RPM Records around September 1951. The recording took place at an improvised studio in a room at the Memphis YMCA and the resulting audio quality "was a step down from the standards set by Sam Phillips",[6] who had recorded King's previous singles. Nonetheless, the song "clicked where the others hadn't [perhaps due to] the new found drama and urgency in B.B.'s singing [and] the interplay between his voice and guitar, heard for the first time on record".[4]

King's version is a slow (65 beats per minute)[6] twelve-bar blues notated in 12/8 time in the key of C.[7] His guitar work on the song shows his T-Bone Walker influences, "though his tone was bigger and rounder and his phrasing somewhat heavier".[8] King also used melisma, a vocal technique found in gospel music, in which he bends and stretches a single syllable into a melodic phrase.[8] Unlike Fulson, King used a full backing arrangement, including a horn section and Ike Turner on piano.

In 1952, "3 O'Clock Blues" spent five weeks at #1 in the Billboard R&B chart[3] and launched B.B. King's career.[4] It has remained in King's repertoire and he has recorded several versions of the song, including a 2000 release with Eric Clapton for their Riding with the King album.

References

  1. ^ Sometimes referred to as "Three O'Clock in the Morning" after the opening lyrics, although that is the title of a different song.
  2. ^ In 1938 Monkey Joe recorded a different "Three O'Clock Blues" (Vocalion 04294).
  3. ^ a b Whitburn, Joel (1988). Top R&B Singles 1942–1988. Record Research, Inc. pp. 238, 161. ISBN 0-89820-068-7. 
  4. ^ a b c Escott, Colin (2002). B.B. King / The Vintage Years (liner notes). Ace Records, Ltd. p. 40. Ace ABOXCD 8. 
  5. ^ Visser, Joop (2004). Lowell Fulson: Juke Box Shuffle (liner notes). Proper Records. pp. 3–4. Intro CD 2042. 
  6. ^ a b c Gioia, Ted (2008). Delta Blues. W. W. Norton. p. 330. ISBN 978-0-393-33750-1. 
  7. ^ The Blues. Hal Leonard Corporation. 1995. pp. 218–19. ISBN 0793552591. 
  8. ^ a b Palmer, Robert (1982). Deep Blues. Penguin Books. p. 230. ISBN 0-14-006223-8. 
Preceded by
"Flamingo" by Earl Bostic and His Orchestra		 Billboard Best Selling Retail Rhythm & Blues Records number-one single (B.B. King version)
February 2, 1952 - March 8, 1952
(five weeks)		 Succeeded by
"Night Train" by Jimmy Forest, tenor and all star combo