"The Things That I Used to Do" is a

blues standard Blues standards are blues songs that have attained a high level of recognition due to having been widely performed and recorded. They represent the best known and most interpreted blues songs that are seen as standing the test of time. Blues s ...

written by

Guitar Slim Eddie Jones (December 10, 1926 – February 7, 1959), better known as Guitar Slim, was an American guitarist in the 1940s and 1950s, best known for the million-selling song " The Things That I Used to Do", for Specialty Records. It is listed in t ...

. He recorded it in New Orleans, where the young

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...

arranged and produced the session.

Specialty Records Specialty Records was an American record label founded in Los Angeles in 1945 by Art Rupe. It was known for rhythm and blues, gospel, and early rock and roll, and recorded artists such as Little Richard, Guitar Slim, Percy Mayfield, and Lloyd Pr ...

released the song as a single in 1953 and it became a bestseller the following year. Specialty founder

Art Rupe Arthur Newton Rupe (born Arthur Goldberg; September 5, 1917 – April 15, 2022) was an American music executive and record producer. He founded Specialty Records, known for its rhythm and blues, blues, gospel and early rock and roll music reco ...

believed that the appeal would be limited to the Southern U.S. rural audience. However, urban

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 ...

radio stations in the North began airing the song and built it into a national hit. As a result, Guitar Slim became in great demand as a performer and played at venues such as the

Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater is a music hall at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is a ...

in New York City. The single was one of the biggest hits in Specialty's history and stayed on the ''Billboard's'' Rhythm and Blues Records charts for 42 weeks. The song remained at number one for six weeks and was the best-selling R&B record of the year, selling more than a million copies.

Composition and recording

Charles's arrangement and piano accompaniment emphasize the religious tone of intense but philosophical regret in the singer's voice, giving the song a gospel-influenced feel. Like

Fats Domino Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist, singer and songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New O ...

, Guitar Slim had a voice with a less adult sound than that of the typical blues shouters of the time, and his lyrics are less explicitly sexual.

Influence and recognition

The

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and ...

included the tune on its list of the "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll". Stylistically, the song also contributed to the development of

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became ...

. In addition, the song was a success, influencing rock and roll by demonstrating the commercial success of using content that appeals to white listeners and by the effectiveness of its

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

feel. The song had a major impact on the "electric sound" of

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States a ...

and featured distorted overtones on the

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

a full decade before

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

. Guitar Slim was a favorite of Hendrix, who recorded an impromptu version with guitarist

Johnny Winter John Dawson Winter III (February 23, 1944 – July 16, 2014) was an American singer and guitarist. Winter was known for his high-energy blues rock albums and live performances in the late 1960s and 1970s. He also produced three Grammy Award-win ...

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos t ...

in 1969. It was officially released on the compilation ''

Both Sides of the Sky ''Both Sides of the Sky'' is a compilation album by Jimi Hendrix, released by Legacy Recordings and Experience Hendrix on March 9, 2018. The 13-track album, including ten previously unreleased recordings, were recorded with either the Jimi Hendrix ...

'' (2018). "The Things That I Used to Do" became a standard as a result of Guitar Slim's distinctive guitar figuring and the rising and falling melody. Blues historian Gerard Herzhaft noted that it "remains a classic of the New Orleans blues

hich Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...

was covered by Pee Wee Crayton,

Tina Turner Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss retired singer and actress. Widely referred to as the " Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue before ...

, Lonnie Brooks, and Joe Turner". In 1964, a version by

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the hono ...

cracked the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number 99 (the magazine's R&B chart was suspended at the time).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Things That I Used to Do, The 1953 songs 1953 singles 1954 singles 1963 singles Junior Parker songs Ike & Tina Turner songs Blues songs Specialty Records singles