"Just Your Fool" (or "I'm Just Your Fool" as it was first titled) is a

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

-style song written and recorded by the American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

and jump blues bandleader/pianist

Buddy Johnson Woodrow Wilson "Buddy" Johnson (January 10, 1915 – February 9, 1977) was an American jump blues pianist and bandleader active from the 1930s through the 1960s. His songs were often performed by his sister Ella Johnson, most notably " Since I ...

and His Orchestra in 1953. Called an "R&B anthem", the song has a

big-band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

arrangement and his sister

Ella Johnson Ella Johnson (June 22, 1919 – February 16, 2004) was an American jazz and rhythm and blues singer. Music career Born Ella Mae Jackson in Darlington, South Carolina, United States, she joined her brother Buddy Johnson in New York as a teenag ...

on vocals—her "delicate and deceptively sweet phrasing was ideally suited to ballads such as this". "I'm Just Your Fool" became a

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 ...

record hit, reaching number six in 1954.

Little Walter version

Little Walter Marion Walter Jacobs (May 1, 1930 – February 15, 1968), known as Little Walter, was an American blues musician, singer, and songwriter, whose revolutionary approach to the harmonica had a strong impact on succeeding generations, earning hi ...

recorded a Chicago blues adaptation of the song using the title "Just Your Fool". It was recorded in December 1960 in Chicago, with Walter (vocal and

blues harp The Richter-tuned harmonica, or 10-hole harmonica (in Asia) or blues harp (in America), is the most widely known type of harmonica. It is a variety of diatonic harmonica, with ten holes which offer the player 19 notes (10 holes times a draw and ...

) and backing by Otis Spann (piano), Fred Robinson and

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 ...

(guitars), Willie Dixon and/or Jimmie Lee Robinson (bass), and

Fred Below Frederick Below, Jr. (September 6, 1926 – August 13, 1988) was an American blues drummer, best known for his work with Little Walter and Chess Records in the 1950s. According to Tony Russell, Below was a creator of much of the rhythmic struc ...

or George Hunter (drums). "Just Your Fool" was not released until 1962 by Checker Records. He used lyrics and an

eight-bar blues In music, an eight-bar blues is a common blues chord progression. Music writers have described it as "the second most common blues form" being "common to folk, rock, and jazz forms of the blues". It is often notated in or time with eight bars ...

arrangement similar to Buddy Johnson. Checker credits the song to Little Walter, also known as Walter Jacobs.

Cyndi Lauper version

In 2010, the American singer

Cyndi Lauper Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper Thornton (born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. Her career has spanned over 40 years. Her album ''She's So Unusual'' (1983) was the first debut album by a female artist to achi ...

recorded "Just Your Fool" for her album ''

Memphis Blues The Memphis blues is a style of blues music created from the 1910s to the 1930s by musicians in the Memphis area, such as Frank Stokes, Sleepy John Estes, Furry Lewis and Memphis Minnie. The style was popular in vaudeville and medicine shows a ...

''.

Charlie Musselwhite Charles Douglas Musselwhite (born January 31, 1944) is an American electric blues harmonica player and bandleader, one of the white bluesmen who came to prominence, along with Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, and Elvin Bishop, as a pivotal f ...

accompanies Lauper on vocals. The song was released as a single and reached number two on ''Billboard'' magazine's US Digital Blues Songs chart. She performed it live with Musselwhite on the third-season finale of the ''

Celebrity Apprentice ''The Celebrity Apprentice'' is an American television reality competition series. It was a variation of ''The Apprentice'' series, hosted by then real estate developer (later 45th president of the United States) Donald Trump from 2008 to 2015, an ...

'' reality game show.

The Rolling Stones version

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

recorded the song in 2016 for their album '' Blue & Lonesome''. It is one of five Little Walter songs included on the album. On October 6, 2016, it was released as the lead single.

Charts

References

{{authority control 1953 songs Rhythm and blues songs Blues songs 1962 singles Little Walter songs 2010 singles Cyndi Lauper songs The Rolling Stones songs