Key to the Highway
| "Key to the Highway" | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Single by Charlie Segar | |
| B-side | "Stop and Fix It Mama" |
| Released | 1940 |
| Format | 10-inch 78 rpm record |
| Recorded | Chicago, February 23, 1940 |
| Genre | Blues |
| Length | 2:54 |
| Label | Vocalion (no. 5441) |
| Writer(s) | Unknown |
| "Key to the Highway" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Little Walter and His Jukes | |
| B-side | "Rock Bottom" |
| Released | 1958 |
| Format | 7-inch 45 rpm & 10-inch 78 rpm records |
| Recorded | Chicago, August 1958 |
| Genre | Blues |
| Length | 2:48 |
| Label | Checker (no. 904) |
| Writer(s) | unknown |
| Producer(s) | Leonard Chess, Phil Chess, Willie Dixon |
"Key to the Highway" is a blues standard that has been performed and recorded by several blues and other artists. Blues pianist Charlie Segar first recorded the song in 1940. Jazz Gillum and Big Bill Broonzy followed with recordings during 1940–41, using an arrangement that has become the standard. When Little Walter updated the song in 1958 in an electric Chicago blues style, it became a success on the R&B record chart. A variety of artists have since interpreted the song, including Eric Clapton, who recorded several versions.
"Key to the Highway" is usually credited to Charles "Chas" Segar and William "Big Bill" Broonzy. Broonzy explained the song's development:
Some of the verses he [Charlie Segar] was singing it in the South the same time as I sung it in the South. And practically all of blues is just a little change from the way that they was sung when I was a kid ... You take one song and make fifty out of it ... just change it a little bit.
Segar's lyrics are nearly the same as those recorded by Broonzy and Jazz Gillum. The verses use the theme of the itinerant bluesman leaving to travel the highways after breaking up with his lover:
I got the key to the highway, billed out and bound to go
I'm gonna leave here runnin', because walkin' is much too slow ...
Give me one more kiss mama, just before I go
'Cause when I'm leavin' here, I won't be back no more
Musically, however, there are differences in the recorded versions. Charlie Segar's original "Key to the Highway" was performed as a mid-tempo twelve-bar blues. When Jazz Gillum recorded it later that year with Broonzy on guitar, he used an eight-bar blues arrangement (May 9, 1940 Bluebird B 8529). In two different interviews, Gillum gave conflicting stories about who wrote the song: in one, he claimed sole authorship, in another he identified Broonzy "the real author". The chord progression is as follows:
A year later, Broonzy recorded "Key to the Highway" with Gillum on harmonica, Horace Malcolm on piano, Washboard Sam on washboard, and an unknown bassist, also using an eight-bar arrangement. According to Broonzy, he used an original melody which was based on childhood songs. These earliest recorded versions of "Key to the Highway" were released before record industry trade publications, such as Billboard magazine began tracking such releases. While it is difficult to gauge which version was the most popular, the eight-bar arrangement used by Gillum and Broonzy has become the standard for subsequent recordings.
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