"Blues After Hours" is a 1948 instrumental by

West Coast blues West Coast blues is a type of blues music influenced by jazz and jump blues, with strong piano-dominated sounds and jazzy guitar solos, which originated from Texas blues players who relocated to California in the 1940s. West Coast blues also ...

guitarist

Pee Wee Crayton Connie Curtis Crayton (December 18, 1914 – June 25, 1985), known as Pee Wee Crayton, was an American R&B and blues guitarist and singer. Career Crayton was born in Rockdale, Texas. He began playing guitar seriously after moving to California ...

. Released by

Modern Records Modern Records (Modern Music Records before 1947) was an American record company and label formed in 1945 in Los Angeles by the Bihari brothers. Modern's artists included Etta James, Joe Houston, Little Richard, Ike & Tina Turner and John Lee ...

, it was his first single and the most successful of his three chart entries. "Blues After Hours" went to the number one spot on the ''Billboard'' magazine's Race Records charts. According to Crayton, "Blues After Hours" was inspired by

T-Bone Walker Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''Roll ...

and developed while he was playing at the New Orleans Swing Club in San Francisco. During his first recording session for

Jules Bihari The Bihari brothers, Lester, Jules, Saul and Joe, were American businessmen of Hungarian Jewish origins. They were the founders of Modern Records in Los Angeles and its subsidiaries, such as Meteor Records, based in Memphis. The Bihari brothers we ...

, Crayton began to play the song and Bihari decided to record it. Crayton protested, saying that the song was unfinished. Bihari countered: "Play anything." "So I started playing and ideas just came. I was making T-Bone's stuff into what little I knew. That turned out to be one of the biggest records I ever had." Backing Crayton on guitar are: Buddy Floyd on tenor saxophone, David Lee Johnson on piano, Bill Davis on bass, Candy Johnson on drums, plus additional unidentified musicians.

Billy Vera Billy Vera (born William Patrick McCord; May 28, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, author, and music historian. He has been a singer and songwriter since the 1960s, his most successful record being "At This Moment", a US number 1 h ...

calls "Blues After Hours" "a barely disguised takeoff on ' After Hours'", a 1940 instrumental by

Erskine Hawkins Erskine Ramsay Hawkins (July 26, 1914 – November 11, 1993) was an American trumpeter and big band leader from Birmingham, Alabama, dubbed "The 20th Century Gabriel". He is best remembered for composing the jazz standard "Tuxedo Junction" (1 ...

and His Orchestra (Bluebird 10879), although Crayton's song features electric guitar, whereas the earlier song does not.

References

{{authority control 1948 singles Instrumentals Blues songs 1948 songs Modern Records singles