That's All Right (Jimmy Rogers song)
| "That's All Right" | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Single by Jimmy Rogers | |
| B-side | "Ludella" |
| Released | 1950 |
| Format | 10-inch 78 rpm & 7-inch 45 rpm record |
| Recorded | Chicago, August 15, 1950 |
| Genre | Blues |
| Length | 2:46 |
| Label | Chess (no. 1435) |
| Songwriter(s) | See text |
| Producer(s) | Leonard Chess |
"That's All Right"or "That's Alright" is a blues song adapted by Chicago blues singer and guitarist Jimmy Rogers. He recorded it in 1950 with Little Walter on harmonica. Although based on earlier blues songs, music writer John Collis calls Rogers' rendition "one of the most tuneful and instantly memorable of all variations on the basic blues format". The song became a blues standard and has been recorded by numerous blues and other artists.
Jimmy Rogers has acknowledged that "That's All Right" draws on ideas from other bluesmen, including Robert Junior Lockwood and Willie Love. However, he feels he pulled it all together: "I put some verses with it and built it that way. I built the song'". Lockwood had performed it years earlier in Helena, Arkansas, which Muddy Waters confirmed: "'That's All Right', that Robert Jr.'s song", he added.
In 1947, Othum Brown recorded "Ora Nelle Blues" (Chance 1116), described as "substantially the same song".Little Walter on harmonica accompanies Brown on vocal and guitar and some pressings of the Chance single are titled "That's Alright" and credited to "Little Water J." Blues researcher Tony Glover suggests that Jimmy Rogers played lead guitar on the first take of the song and that Brown took the theme from Rogers. An earlier version of "Ora Nelle Blues" was recorded on a "one-shot vanity disc" by Floyd Jones on vocal and guitar with Little Walter providing second guitar.
On August 15, 1950, Jimmy Rogers recorded "That's All Right" at the end of recording session for Muddy Waters . Little Water on harmonica and Ernest "Big" Crawford on bass also participated, but Muddy Waters does not appear. The trio performed the song as a moderate- to slow-tempo twelve-bar blues. It features Rogers' guitar and plaintive vocals, with Little Walter playing in the style of Sonny Boy Williamson I.
Despite the title, the lyrics indicate "clearly ... it is not 'all right'":
You told me baby, your love for me was strong
When I woke up little girl half of this, big world was gone
But that's all right, I know you don't love me no more, but that's all right
...
Wikipedia