"That's All Right"or "That's Alright" is a blues song adapted by

Chicago blues Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of the first half of the twentieth cen ...

singer and guitarist

Jimmy Rogers Jimmy Rogers (June 3, 1924December 19, 1997) was an American Chicago blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player, best known for his work as a member of Muddy Waters's band in the early 1950s. He also had a solo career and recorded several pop ...

. He recorded it in 1950 with

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 him ...

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 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 ...

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 McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post- war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicag ...

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 r ...

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 Lejzor Szmuel Czyż (March 12, 1917 – October 16, 1969), best known as Leonard Sam Chess, was a Polish-American record company executive and the co-founder of Chess Records. He was influential in the development of electric blues, Chicago b ...

, 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 The Blues Foundation is an American nonprofit corporation, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the County seat, seat of Shelby County, Tennessee, Shelby County in the southwest part of t ...

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