Key To The Highway
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Key To The Highway
"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 in 1940 and 1941, 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. Original recordings "Key to the Highway" is usually credited to Charles "Chas" Segar and William "Big Bill" Broonzy. Broonzy explained the song's development: 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: Musically, however, there are differences in the recorded versions. Charlie Segar's origina ...
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Charlie Segar
Charlie Segar was an American blues pianist and occasional singer, who is best known for being the first to record the blues standard, "Key to the Highway" (1940). Originally from Pensacola, Florida, Segar has been dubbed the "Keyboard Wizard Supreme".Evans, David (2008). ''Ramblin' On My Mind: New Perspectives on the Blues'', University of Illinois Press, He relocated to Chicago, where he made recordings with other blues artists, such as Bumble Bee Slim and Memphis Minnie, as well as being the featured artist. Segar recorded eight known songs under his own name between 1934 and 1940 for Decca Records and Vocalion Records: *"Cuban Villa Blues" / "Southern Hospitality" (Decca 7027) *"Cow Cow Blues" / "Boogie Woogie" (Decca 7075) *"Key to the Highway" / "Stop and Fix It Mama" (Vocalion 05441) *"Lonesome Graveyard Blues" / "Dissatisfied Blues" (Vocalion 05539) These are included on ''Piano Blues, Vol. 2: 1927–1956'', the Document Records compilation album of piano tunes by variou ...
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Billboard (magazine)
''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music industry. Its music charts include the Hot 100, the 200, and the Global 200, tracking the most popular albums and songs in different genres of music. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm, and operates several TV shows. ''Billboard'' was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan as a trade publication for bill posters. Donaldson later acquired Hennegan's interest in 1900 for $500. In the early years of the 20th century, it covered the entertainment industry, such as circuses, fairs, and burlesque shows, and also created a mail service for travelling entertainers. ''Billboard'' began focusing more on the music industry as the jukebox, phonograph, and radio became commonplace. Many topics it covered were spun-off ...
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Duane Allman
Howard Duane Allman (November 20, 1946 – October 29, 1971) was an American rock guitarist, session musician, and the founder and original leader of the Allman Brothers Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Allman began playing the guitar at age 14. He formed the Allman Brothers Band with his brother Gregg in Jacksonville, Florida in 1969, and achieved its greatest success in the early 1970s. Allman is best remembered for his brief but influential tenure in the band and in particular for his expressive slide guitar playing and inventive improvisational skills. A sought-after session musician both before and during his tenure with the band, Duane Allman performed with such established stars as King Curtis, Aretha Franklin, Herbie Mann, Wilson Pickett, and Boz Scaggs. He also contributed greatly to the 1970 album ''Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs'', by Derek and the Dominos. He died following a moto ...
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Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs
''Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs'' is the only studio album by the English–American rock band Derek and the Dominos, released in November 1970 as a double album. It is best known for its title track, "Layla", and is often regarded as Eric Clapton's greatest musical achievement. The other band members were Bobby Whitlock on keyboards and vocals, Jim Gordon on drums, and Carl Radle on bass. Duane Allman played lead and slide guitar on 11 of the 14 songs. Initially regarded as a critical and commercial disappointment, it failed to chart in Britain and peaked at number 16 on the ''Billboard'' Top LPs chart in the United States. It returned to the US albums chart again in 1972, 1974 and 1977, and has since been certified Gold by the RIAA. The album finally debuted on the UK Albums Chart in 2011, peaking at number 68. In 2000, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2003, television network VH1 named ''Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs'' the 89th-greatest al ...
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Derek And The Dominos
Derek and the Dominos was an English–American blues rock band formed in the spring of 1970 by guitarist and singer Eric Clapton, keyboardist and singer Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon. All four members had previously played together in Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, during and after Clapton's brief tenure with Blind Faith. Dave Mason supplied additional lead guitar on early studio sessions and played at their first live gig. Another participant at their first session as a band was George Harrison, the recording for whose album ''All Things Must Pass'' marked the formation of Derek and the Dominos. The band released only one studio album, ''Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs'', produced by Tom Dowd, which also featured extensive contributions on lead and slide guitar from Duane Allman. A double album, ''Layla'' did not immediately enjoy strong sales or receive widespread radio airplay, but went on to earn critical acclaim. Although released in 19 ...
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His Best (Little Walter Album)
''His Best'' is a greatest hits album by Chicago blues harmonica player Little Walter, released on June 17, 1997 by MCA and Chess Records as a part of ''The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection'' (see 1997 in music). The album is seen as the CD successor to the 1958 '' The Best of Little Walter'' and features ten of the songs from that album. Notable inclusions Juke " Juke" was Little Walter's first solo recording for Leonard Chess and reached #1 on the R&B Singles chart. A harmonica instrumental, it is Walter's most famous composition. Mean Old World Adapted from a 1942 T-Bone Walker song, "Mean Old World" became a #6 R&B chart success for Walter. Blues with a Feeling Walter's rendition reached #2 on the R&B Single chart and made the song a harmonica-blues standard. "Blues with a Feeling" was originally recorded by Rabon Tarrant with Jack McVea and His All Stars in 1947. My Babe Written by Willie Dixon, "My Babe" was Walter's second #1 on the R&B Charts. It is perhaps Walter ...
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Record Research
Joel Carver Whitburn (November 29, 1939 – June 14, 2022) was an American author and music historian, responsible for setting up the Record Research, Inc. series of books on record chart placings. Early life Joel Carver Whitburn was born in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin on November 29, 1939."Joel (Carver) Whitburn". '' Contemporary Authors''. Detroit: Gale. 2002. He started collecting records in his teens, first subscribed to ''Billboard'' in 1953, and when the Hot 100 was introduced in 1958 started recording the chart placings of records on index cards. After graduating from Menomonee Falls High School in 1957, he attended Elmhurst College and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, but did not receive a degree from either institution. Career Whitburn worked on record distribution for RCA in the mid 1960s, using his chart statistics to inform radio stations, before founding his own company, Record Research, Inc., in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, in 1970. He put together a team of rese ...
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Billboard R&B Chart
The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 positions but was shortened to 50 positions in October 2012. The chart is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, rock and roll, soul, and funk, it is today dominated by contemporary R&B and hip hop. Since its inception, the chart has changed its name many times in order to accurately reflect the industry at the time. History Beginning in 1942, ''Billboard'' published a chart of bestselling black music, first as the Harlem Hit Parade, then as Race Records. Then in 1949, ''Billboard'' began publishing a Rhythm and Blues chart, which entered "R&B" into mainstream lexicon. These three charts were consolidated ...
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Otis Spann
Otis Spann (March 21, 1924 or 1930April 24, 1970) was an American blues musician, whom many consider to be the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist. Early life Sources differ over Spann's early years. Some state that he was born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1930, but researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc concluded on the basis of census records and other official information that he was born in 1924 in Belzoni, Mississippi. Spann's father was, according to some sources, a pianist called Friday Ford. His mother, Josephine Erby, was a guitarist who had worked with Memphis Minnie and Bessie Smith, and his stepfather, Frank Houston Spann, was a preacher and musician. One of five children, Spann began playing the piano at the age of seven, with some instruction from Friday Ford, Frank Spann, and Little Brother Montgomery.Harris, S. (1981). ''Blues Who's Who''. New York: Da Capo Press. pp. 477–479. . Career By the age of 14, he was playing in bands in the Jackson area. He moved to C ...
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Luther Tucker
Luther Tucker (January 20, 1936 – June 18, 1993) was an American blues guitarist. While soft-spoken and shy, Tucker made his presence known through his unique and clearly recognizable guitar style. Tucker helped to define the music known as Chicago blues, but played everything from blues to soul, rock, jazz and gospel, when given the chance. While never achieving the fame and notoriety of some of his contemporaries, he was considered a great guitarist whether playing his own lead style or playing on the recordings of B.B. King, Mel Brown, Pat Hare, or Elmore James. He is considered one of the most prominent rhythm guitarists of Chicago blues along with Eddie Taylor, Jody Williams and Freddie Robinson. He variously worked with Little Walter, Otis Rush, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, The James Cotton Blues Band and Elvin Bishop. Career Early years Tucker was born in Memphis, Tennessee. His father, a carpenter, built Tucker his first guitar, but his first real guitar was a Se ...
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Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues". His style of playing has been described as "raining down Delta beatitude". Muddy Waters grew up on Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale, Mississippi, and by age 17 was playing the guitar and the harmonica, emulating the local blues artists Son House and Robert Johnson."His thick heavy voice, the dark colouration of his tone, and his firm, almost solid, personality were all clearly derived from House," wrote the music historian Peter Guralnick in ''Feel Like Going Home'', "but the embellishments, which he added, the imaginative slide technique and more agile rhythms, were closer to Johnson." He was recorded in Mississippi by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1941. In 1943, he moved to Chicago to become a full-time professi ...
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Willie Dixon
William James Dixon (July 1, 1915January 29, 1992) was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he is perhaps best known as one of the most prolific songwriters of his time. Next to Muddy Waters, Dixon is recognized as the most influential person in shaping the post–World War II sound of the Chicago blues.Trager, Oliver (2004). ''Keys to the Rain: The Definitive Bob Dylan Encyclopedia''. Billboard Books. pp. 298–299. . Dixon's songs have been recorded by countless musicians in many genres as well as by various ensembles in which he participated. A short list of his most famous compositions includes "Hoochie Coochie Man", " I Just Want to Make Love to You", "Little Red Rooster", "My Babe", "Spoonful", and "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover". These songs were written during the peak years of Chess Records, from 1950 to 1965, and wer ...
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