"3 O'Clock Blues" or "Three O'Clock Blues" is a slow

twelve-bar blues The 12-bar blues (or blues changes) is one of the most prominent chord progressions in popular music. The blues progression has a distinctive form in lyrics, phrase, chord structure, and duration. In its basic form, it is predominantly based on ...

recorded by

Lowell Fulson Lowell Fulson (March 31, 1921March 7, 1999) was an American blues guitarist and songwriter, in the West Coast blues tradition. He also recorded for contractual reasons as Lowell Fullsom and Lowell Fulsom. After T-Bone Walker, he was the most imp ...

in 1946. When it was released in 1948, it became Fulson's first hit. When

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shi ...

recorded the song in 1951, it became his first hit as well as one of the best-selling R&B singles in 1952. "3 O'Clock Blues" effectively launched King's career and remained a part of his concert repertoire throughout his life. The song was included on his first album, ''

Singin' the Blues ''Singin' the Blues'' is the first LP album by American bluesman B.B. King, released in 1957 by the Bihari brothers on their Crown budget label. It is a compilation album whose songs were issued between 1951 and 1956 on singles by RPM Records a ...

'' and since has appeared on several King albums, including a remake in 2000 with

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...

for the ''

Riding with the King Riding with the King may refer to: * Riding with the King (John Hiatt album), 1983 * Riding with the King (B. B. King and Eric Clapton album), 2000 {{dab ...

'' album.

Original song

Lowell Fulson recorded "Three O'Clock Blues" during his first recording session for Oakland, California-based record producer

Bob Geddins Robert L. Geddins (February 6, 1913 – February 16, 1991) was an American San Francisco Bay Area blues and rhythm and blues musician and record producer. Geddins was born in Highbank, Texas, United States, a town ten miles south of Marlin, who ca ...

in 1946. Fulson, who sang and played guitar, was accompanied by his brother Martin on second guitar. The duo produced several

country blues Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...

-style songs after World War II. According to music historian

Ted Gioia Ted Gioia (born October 21, 1957) is an American jazz critic and music historian. He is author of eleven books, including ''Music: A Subversive History'', '' The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire'', ''The History of Jazz'' and ''Delta Blu ...

, the song lyrics start out "as an insomniac's lament, but end up with a weepy farewell more suited to a suicide note": By the time of the record's release two years later in 1948, Fulson's style had already evolved into a

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 ...

style typified by his hit recordings for Downbeat and

Swing Time Records Swing Time Records was a United States-based record label active in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The label was founded by Jack Lauderdale in 1947 as Down Beat Records and was headquartered in Los Angeles, California. In approximately October ...

, such as "

Every Day I Have the Blues "Every Day I Have the Blues" is a blues song that has been performed in a variety of styles. An early version of the song is attributed to Pinetop Sparks and his brother Milton. It was first performed in the taverns of St. Louis by the Sparks ...

" and "

Blue Shadows "Blue Shadows" is a 1950 single by Lowell Fulson, featuring Lloyd Glenn Lloyd Colquitt Glenn (November 21, 1909 – May 23, 1985) was an American R&B pianist, bandleader and arranger, who was a pioneer of the "West Coast" blues style. Care ...

". Nonetheless, "Three O'Clock Blues", became a hit and reached number six in the R&B chart.

B.B. King rendition

Recording and composition

B.B. King recorded "3 O'Clock Blues" for RPM Records around September 1951. The recording took place at an improvised studio in a room at the Memphis

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

and the resulting audio quality was lower than recordings by

Sam Phillips Samuel Cornelius Phillips (January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003) was an American record producer. He was the founder of Sun Records and Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where he produced recordings by Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, ...

, who had recorded King's previous singles. Nonetheless, writer

Colin Escott Colin Escott (born August 31, 1949) is a British music historian and author specializing in early U.S. rock and roll and country music. His works include a biography of Hank Williams, histories of Sun Records and The Grand Ole Opry, liner notes ...

notes that the song "clicked where the others hadn't erhaps due tothe new found drama and urgency in B.B.'s singing ndthe interplay between his voice and guitar, heard for the first time on record". The mingling of these two elements was brought to the forefront by the distant, subdued sound of the accompanying musicians. King's version is a slow (65

beats per minute Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery ( ...

)

notated in 12/8 time in the key of C. Blues historian Robert Palmer sees King's guitar work on the song as showing his

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 ...

influences, "though his tone was bigger and rounder and his phrasing somewhat heavier". He borrowed Walker's technique of repeating a pitch on neighboring strings by sounding a note then sliding up to the same pitch on the successive lower string. This method allows the player to shift to higher position while creating a unique effect that emphasizes "tonal contrast". King also used

melisma Melisma ( grc-gre, μέλισμα, , ; from grc, , melos, song, melody, label=none, plural: ''melismata'') is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is referr ...

, a vocal technique found in gospel music, in which he bends and stretches a single syllable into a melodic phrase. Unlike Fulson, King used a full backing arrangement, including a horn section (including

Evelyn Young Evelyn Ebersis Young (November 17, 1915February 14, 1983) was an American film actress. At the height of her career in 1940, she appeared in 9 feature films. She was the leading female actress in ''The Wildcat of Tucson'' and '' Prairie Schoon ...

on saxophone) and

Ike Turner Izear Luster "Ike" Turner Jr. (November 5, 1931 – December 12, 2007) was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, record producer, and talent scout. An early pioneer of 1950s rock and roll, he is best known for his work in the 1960s and 1 ...

on piano.

Charts and recognition

"3 O'Clock Blues" was released by RPM Records in December 1951, and by December 29 it had entered ''Billboard'' magazine's Rhythm and Blues charts. The single spent a total of 17 weeks on the charts, including five weeks at number one. "3 O'Clock Blues" launched B.B. King's career and gave him his first opportunity to perform in front of a national audience. Due to the song's success, he began performing in the big theaters, such as the

Howard Theater The Howard Theatre is a historic theater, located at 620 T Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C. Opened in 1910, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. In its heyday, the theater was known for catering to an African- ...

in Washington and the

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

in New York, with a significant increase in his weekly earnings, from about $85 to $2,500. It sparked a touring schedule that continued throughout King's career. In 1956, the song was included on King's first album, ''

''. It has remained in King's repertoire and he has recorded several versions of the song, including a 2000 release with

for their ''

Riding with the King Riding with the King may refer to: * Riding with the King (John Hiatt album), 1983 * Riding with the King (B. B. King and Eric Clapton album), 2000 {{dab ...

'' album. In 2020, the

Blues Foundation The Blues Foundation is an American nonprofit corporation, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, that is affiliated with more than 175 blues organizations from various parts of the world. Founded in 1980, a 25-person board of directors governs the ...

inducted "3 O’Clock Blues" into the Blues Hall of Fame as a "Classic of Blues Recording". The induction statement described it as "the first record to amply capture the emerging brilliance of both his ing'ssinging and guitar playing talents".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:3 O'clock Blues 1946 songs 1948 singles Lowell Fulson songs 1951 singles B.B. King songs Blues songs Songs about suicide RPM Records (United States) singles