| "That's All Right" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Jimmy Rogers | ||||
| B-side | "Ludella" | |||
| Released | 1950 | |||
| Format | 10" 78 rpm & 7" 45 rpm record | |||
| Recorded | Chicago, August 15, 1950 | |||
| Genre | Blues | |||
| Length | 2:46 | |||
| Label | Chess (Cat. no. 1435) | |||
| Producer | Leonard Chess | |||
| Jimmy Rogers singles chronology | ||||
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"That's All Right"[1] or "That's Alright" is a blues song that is "a recognised standard and is widely performed".[2] Based on earlier songs, Chicago blues singer and guitarist Jimmy Rogers recorded "That's All Right" in 1950. The song became a hit and has been recorded by numerous blues and other artists.
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According to Jimmy Rogers, "'That's All Right' was composed from a mixture of ideas from bluesmen Robert Junior Lockwood and Willie Love, and 'I put some verses with it and built it that way. I built the song'".[2] Lockwood "was performing it years earlier in Helena, Arkansas",[3] which was confirmed by Muddy Waters: "'That's All Right', that Robert Jr.'s song".[3]
In 1947, Othum Brown recorded "Ora Nelle Blues" (Chance 1116), described as "substantially the same song".[2] It features Brown on vocal and guitar with Little Walter on harmonica (some pressings of the Chance single are titled "That's Alright" and credited to "Little Water J."). It has been suggested that Jimmy Rogers played lead guitar on the first take of the song and that Brown took the theme from Rogers.[3] An earlier version of "Ora Nelle Blues" was recorded on a "one-shot vanity disc"[3] by Floyd Jones on vocal and guitar with Little Walter providing second guitar.
At the end of a 1950 Muddy Waters recording session, Jimmy Rogers recorded "That's All Right" as his debut single for Chess Records. A moderate- to slow-tempo twelve-bar blues, it has been called "one of the most tuneful and instantly memorable of all variations on the basic blues format".[4] The song features Rogers' guitar and plaintive vocals, with Little Walter playing the harmonica in the style of Sonny Boy Williamson I and Ernest "Big" Crawford on bass (Muddy Waters did not perform the song).
Despite the title, the lyrics indicate "clearly ... it is not 'all right'":[5]
"That's All Right" became "an instant hit in Chicago"[6] and cemented Rogers' relationship with Leonard Chess, leading to his nine-year association with Chess Records. Jimmy Rogers performed the song throughout his career, recording additional studio and live versions of the song.
Many blues and other artists have recorded "That's All Right", including Junior Parker as a single (1958), Mose Allison from the album Mose Allison Sings (1963), Robert Nighthawk from And This Is Maxwell Street (1964, released 1998), Canned Heat from Historical Figures and Ancient Heads (1971), Doctor Ross, Freddie King from King of the Blues (1971, released 1995), Buddy Guy & Junior Wells from Alone and Acoustic (1981), James Cotton from Fire Down under the Hill (2000), and Etta James from Blues to the Bone (2004).