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