"Hey Bartender" is a song written by Dossie Terry, copyright filing EU389235 dated 10 March 1955 and renewed RE180048 on 11 March 1983. It was first recorded by

Floyd Dixon Floyd Dixon (February 8, 1929 – July 26, 2006) was an American rhythm-and-blues pianist and singer. Life and career Dixon was born in Marshall, Texas. Some sources give his birth name as Jay Riggins, Jr., although Dixon himself stated that ...

in 1955 on Cat Records 114; the label credits "Terry" as composer. A cover by "Blue Boo Boo" Blazer & Little Archie Taylor with Geechie Hicks & His Creole Combo was released as a

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

in 1959 and it was credited to "Blazer-Williams". A cover by

Laurel Aitken Lorenzo "Laurel" Aitken (22 April 1927 – 17 July 2005) was an influential Caribbean singer and one of the pioneers of Jamaican ska music. He is often referred to as the "Godfather of Ska". Career Born in Cuba of mixed Cuban and Jamaican desc ...

in 1961 titled "Bar Tender" made the song a success, though the Blue Beat 45 label credited "L. Aitken" as composer. It was subsequently covered and recorded live by

The Blues Brothers The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on ''Saturday Night Live''. Belushi and Aykroyd fronted the band, in character, respective ...

in 1978, although the composer credit on the Atlantic Records release indicated "Floyd Dickson". It was also recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artist Johnny Lee, though his release also credited "Floyd Dickson" as composer. It was released in June 1983 as the first single and title track from his album, ''Hey Bartender''. The song reached number 2 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot Country Singles Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

chart and number 1 on the ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'' Country Tracks chart in Canada.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

1983 singles 1954 songs Johnny Lee (singer) songs Song recordings produced by Jimmy Bowen Full Moon Records singles The Blues Brothers songs {{1950s-country-song-stub