List of blues standards

Blues standards are blues songs that have attained a high level of recognition due to having been widely performed and recorded.^[1] They represent the best known and most interpreted blues songs that are seen as standing the test of time.^[2] Blues standards come from different eras and styles, including ragtime-vaudeville, Delta blues, country blues, and urban blues from Chicago and the West Coast.^[3]

Many blues songs were developed in American folk music traditions and individual songwriters are sometimes unidentified.^[1] Blues historian Gerard Herzhaft noted:

In the case of very old blues songs, there is the constant recourse to oral tradition that conveyed the tune and even the song itself while at the same time evolving for several decades. This was long before the first recording. The fact that such blues are attributed to Charlie Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Blind Blake often means that they were the first to record them.^[1]

Compounding the problem is that, in the earlier days, many blues songs were not copyrighted.^[1] Later, the rights were claimed by those who recorded a subsequent version or were managers or record company owners.^[1][a]

Nearly one half of the blues standards listed were first recorded in the pre-World War II acoustic blues era, before music publications tracked the sales of blues records.^[7] Many popular renditions, as reflected in the record charts, are more modern versions featuring electric instruments. For example, Robert Johnson and Tampa Red, who were the first to record the most blues standards on the list at four each, performed them as solo or duo acoustic performances. B.B. King and Muddy Waters, with the most standards on the charts at five each,^[8] used electric blues-ensemble arrangements.

Der Musikjournalist Richie Unterberger kommentierte die Anpassungsfähigkeit des Blues: „Von seinen Anfängen an hat der Blues stets auf Entwicklungen in der Popmusik insgesamt reagiert: Der Einsatz von Gitarre und Klavier in der amerikanischen Folk- und Gospelmusik , die perkussiven Rhythmen des Jazz , die Texte der Tin Pan Alley und die weitverbreitete Verwendung von Verstärkern und elektrischen Instrumenten trugen alle zur Entwicklung des Blues bei.“ ^{[ 9 ]} Blues-Standards, die in den 1960er- und 1970er-Jahren in den Charts erschienen ^{[ b ],} waren oft bereits von Rhythm-and-Blues- , Soul- und Rockmusikern aufgenommen worden . ^{[ 10 ]} Jedes der aufgeführten Lieder wurde von mindestens fünf Musikjournalisten als Blues-Standard identifiziert. Schreibweisen und Titel können variieren; es werden die gebräuchlichsten verwendet.

• Blues-Portal