Help Me (Sonny Boy Williamson II song)

"Help Me"
Single by Sonny Boy Williamson II
B-side "Bye Bye Bird"
Released 1963
Format 7" 45 rpm record
Recorded Chicago
January 11, 1963
Genre Blues
Length 3:07
Label Checker (Cat. no. 1036)
Writer(s) Sonny Boy Williamson II, Willie Dixon, Ralph Bass
Producer(s) Leonard Chess, Phil Chess, Willie Dixon
Sonny Boy Williamson II singles chronology
"One Way Out"/ "Nine Below Zero"
(1962)		 "Help Me"
(1963)		 "Trying to Get Back on My Feet"/ "Decoration Day"
(1963)

"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.

In the media

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

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Herzhaft, Gerard (1992). Encyclopedia of the Blues. University of Arkansas Press. p. 450. ISBN 1-55728-252-8.
  2. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (1988). Top R&B Singles 1942-1988. Record Research, Inc. p. 447. ISBN 0-89820-068-7.
  3. ↑ "1987 Blues Foundation Hall of Fame Inductees". Classics of Blues Recordings. The Blues Foundation. 1987. Retrieved December 16, 2009.

External links