"That's All Right"or "That's Alright" is a
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
song adapted by
Chicago blues singer and guitarist
Jimmy Rogers. He recorded it in 1950 with
Little Walter on harmonica. Although based on earlier blues songs, music writer John Collis calls Rogers' rendition "one of the most tuneful and instantly memorable of all variations on the basic blues format". The song became a
blues standard and has been recorded by numerous blues and other artists.
Origins
Jimmy Rogers has acknowledged that "That's All Right" draws on ideas from other bluesmen, including
Robert Junior Lockwood and
Willie Love.
[
] However, he feels he pulled it all together: "I put some verses with it and built it that way. I built the song".
Lockwood had performed it years earlier in Helena, Arkansas,
[
] which
Muddy Waters confirmed: "'That's All Right', that Robert Jr.'s song", he added.
In 1947, Othum Brown recorded "Ora Nelle Blues" (Chance 1116), described as "substantially the same song".
on harmonica accompanies Brown on vocal and guitar and some pressings of the Chance single are titled "That's Alright" and credited to "Little Water J." Blues researcher
Tony Glover suggests that Jimmy Rogers played lead guitar on the first take of the song and that Brown took the theme from Rogers.
An earlier version of "Ora Nelle Blues" was recorded on a "one-shot vanity disc"
by
Floyd Jones on vocal and guitar with Little Walter providing second guitar.
Composition and recording
On August 15, 1950, Jimmy Rogers recorded "That's All Right" at the end of recording session for Muddy Waters.
Little Walter on harmonica and Ernest "Big" Crawford on bass also participated, but Muddy Waters does not appear.
The trio performed the song as a moderate- to slow-tempo
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 ...
. It features Rogers' guitar and plaintive vocals, with Little Walter playing in the style of
Sonny Boy Williamson I.
Despite the title, the lyrics indicate "clearly ... it is not 'all right'":
[
]
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and roll ...
issued the song as Rogers debut single for the label, backed with "Ludella".
Although it did not reach the singles charts, "That's All Right" became immediately popular with Chicago blues musicians.
[
] It also cemented Rogers' relationship with
Leonard Chess, leading to his nine-year association with Chess Records. Rogers performed the song throughout his career, recording additional studio and live versions of the song.
Legacy
In 2016, "That's All Right" was inducted into the
Blues Foundation Blues Hall of Fame.
[
] In the inductee announcement, the Foundation called it a "poignant reflection sung in Rogers’ characteristically warm and empathetic style, with Little Walter's sensitive support on harmonica".
It also identifies the song as a blues standard, which has been "recorded by dozens of artists over the years".
References
{{Reflist
1950 singles
1958 singles
Blues songs
Year of song unknown
Chess Records singles