Help Me (song)

"Help Me" is a blues standard first recorded by Sonny Boy Williamson II in 1963.^[1] The song, a mid-tempo twelve-bar blues, is credited to Williamson, Willie Dixon, and Ralph Bass and is based on the 1962 instrumental hit "Green Onions" by Booker T. and the MGs.^[1] "Help Me" became a hit in 1963 and reached #24 in the Billboard R&B chart.^[2] The song was later included on the 1966 Williamson compilation More Folk Blues (Chess 1509). In 1987, "Help Me" was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in the "Classics of Blues Recordings" category.^[3] The song is featured on many Sonny Boy Williamson greatest hits albums including His Best.

Other versions

Junior Wells
John Mayall's Bluesbreakers
Van Morrison on his live albums It's Too Late to Stop Now and A Night in San Francisco. He has also performed the song over 700 times in concert, since its first appearance on Morrison's 1973 Hard Nose the Highway tour.^[4]
Ten Years After on their debut album Ten Years After
Canned Heat on their debut album Canned Heat
Th' Legendary Shack Shakers on the album Believe'
Joan Osborne on her 1995 major label debut, Relish
Chantel McGregor on her 2011 debut album, Like No Other.
George Thorogood and the Destroyers on their 2011 album 2120 South Michigan Ave.

Sonny Boy Williamson's "Help Me" was featured in the movie Secondhand Lions.

^ ^a ^b Herzhaft, Gerard (1992). Encyclopedia of the Blues. University of Arkansas Press. p. 450. ISBN 1557282528.
^ Whitburn, Joel (1988). Top R&B Singles 1942-1988. Record Research, Inc. p. 447. ISBN 0898200687.
^ "1987 Blues Foundation Hall of Fame Inductees". Classics of Blues Recordings. The Blues Foundation. 1987. http://www.blues.org/halloffame/inductees.php4?YearId=18. Retrieved December 16, 2009.
^ Becker, Gunter. "Van Morrison song database". ivan.vanomatic.de. http://ivan.vanomatic.de/. Retrieved 2009-12-30.