Every Day I Have the Blues

When Memphis Slim entered a Chicago studio in 1949 to cut "Every Day I Have the Blues," he took a relatively obscure 1930s tune by the Sparks brothers and completely supercharged it. Slim built a swinging, relentlessly driving jump-blues arrangement around his booming piano and a tight, punchy horn section. The record was a massive hit, but its true legacy came a few years later when a young B.B. King lifted Slim's exact big-band blueprint, turning the song into his own career-defining, brass-heavy orchestra theme.