Junco Partner

"Junco Partner" is an American blues song first recorded by James Waynes in 1951. It has been recorded and revised by many other artists over several decades, including Louis Jordan, Michael Bloomfield, Dr. John, Professor Longhair, James Booker, and The Clash. It has been covered in various genres of music including blues, folk, rock, reggae, and dub.

Singer James Waynes made the first recording of "Junco Partner" in 1951, for Bob Shad's record label "Sittin' in with...". The song is credited to Shad and "Robert Ellen" (a pseudonym Shad used on some recordings), though it was directly inspired by the Willie Hall song "Junker's Blues". According to musician Mac Rebennack ("Dr. John"), James Waynes' recording made the song popular, although it was already widely known among musicians in New Orleans and elsewhere as "the anthem of the dopers, the whores, the pimps, the cons. It was a song they sang in Angola, the state prison farm, and the rhythm was even known as the 'jailbird beat'." In 1952, several artists covered the song, including Richard Hayes with the Eddie Sauter Orchestra, and Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five for Decca.

Fully credited to himself, Chuck Berry's 1961 "The Man and the Donkey" is based on the "Junco Partner" melody with a story based on a traditional West African tale heard on other songs such as Willie Dixon's Signifying Monkey (1947) or Oscar Brown, Jr.'s Signifying Monkey (1960).

...
Wikipedia