Monday, September 11, 2023

Top 100 Blues Songs of All Time

Blues:

Top 100 Songs

This list was compiled by aggregating 38 lists focused on blues songs. The top 100 songs according to the aggregate of the lists were then re-ranked based on overall points in Dave’s Music Database. The aggregated list and the Dave’s Music Database rankings were then average together for the final result.

In most cases, only one version of a song is listed below. Exceptions include Robert Johnson’s “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom” and its even more iconic cover by Elmore James as well as Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads” and its classic-rock cover by Cream.

Click here to see other genre-specific song lists.

1. Muddy Waters “Mannish Boy” (1955)
2. John Lee Hooker “Boogie Chillen” (1949)
3. B.B. King “The Thrill Is Gone” (1969)
4. Muddy Waters “Hoochie Coochie Man” (1954)
5. Howlin’ Wolf “Smokestack Lightning” (1956)
6. Robert Johnson “Cross Road Blues (aka ‘Crossroads’)” (1936)
7. T-Bone Walker “Call It Stormy Monday” (1948)
8. John Lee Hooker “Boom Boom” (1962)
9. Robert Johnson “Hell Hound on My Trail” (1937)
10. Elmore James “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom” (1952)

11. Albert King “Born Under a Bad Sign” (1967)
12. Robert Johnson “Sweet Home Chicago” (1936)
13. Bessie Smith & Jimmie Cox “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” (1929)
14. Elmore James “The Sky Is Crying” (1960)
15. Little Walter “Juke” (1952)
16. Clarence “Pine Top” Smith “Pine Top’s Boogie Woogie” (1929)
17. Muddy Waters “Got My Mojo Working” (1956)
18. Big Joe Williams “Baby Please Don’t Go” (1941)
19. Sonny Boy Williamson #1 “Good Morning Little School” (1937)
20. Howlin’ Wolf “How Many More Years” (1951)

21. Guitar Slim “The Things That I Used to Do” (1954)
22. Otis Rush “I Can’t Quit You Baby” (1956)
23. Etta James “At Last” (1960)
24. Mamie Smith “Crazy Blues” (1920)
25. The Jimi Hendrix Experience “Red House” (1967)
26. Blind Willie McTell “Statesboro Blues” (1927)
27. Bo Diddley “I’m a Man” (1955)
28. Canned Heat “On the Road Again” (1968)
29. Big Bill Broonzy “Key to the Highway” (1941)
30. Robert Johnson “Come on in My Kitchen” (1937)

31. Muddy Waters “Rollin’ Stone” (1950)
32. Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble “Pride and Joy” (1983)
33. Muddy Waters “I Can’t Be Satisfied” (1948)
34. Little Walter “My Babe” (1955)
35. Robert Johnson “Love in Vain” (1937)
36. Charley Patton “Pony Blues” (1929)
37. Big Mama Thornton “Hound Dog” (1953)
38. Cream “Crossroads” (live, 1969)
39. B.B. King “Every Day I Have the Blues” (1955)
40. Gary Moore “Still Got the Blues” (1990)

41. Muddy Waters “I Just Want to Make Love to You” (1954)
42. Lowell Fulson “Reconsider Baby” (1954)
43. Roosevelt Sykes “Forty Four Blues” (1929)
44. Freddie King “Hideaway” (1961)
45. Howlin’ Wolf “Spoonful” (1960)
46. Elmore James “Shake Your Moneymaker” (1961)
47. Slim Harpo “I’m a King Bee” (1957)
48. Ma Rainey “See See Rider Blues” (1925)
49. The Mississippi Sheiks “Sitting on Top of the World” (1930)
50. Louis Jordan “Let the Good Times Roll” (1946)

51. Leroy Carr with Scrapper Blackwell “How Long, How Long Blues” (1928)
52. Blind Willie Johnson “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” (1928)
53. Magic Sam “All Your Love” (1957)
54. Koko Taylor “Wang Dang Doodle” (1965)
55. Blind Lemon Jefferson “Black Snake Moan” (1927)
56. Freddie King “I’m Tore Down” (1961)
57. Robert Petway “Catfish Blues” (1941)
58. Junior Wells with Buddy Guy “Messin’ with the Kid” (1970)
59. Wilson Pickett “Mustang Sally” (1966)
60. Blind Lemon Jefferson “Matchbox Blues” (1927)

61. Clarence Carter “Slip Away” (1968)
62. B.B. King “Three O’Clock Blues” (1951)
63. John Lee Hooker “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” (1966)
64. Howlin’ Wolf “The Killing Floor” (1964)
65. Son House “Death Letter Blues” (1930)
66. Robert Johnson “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom” (1936)
67. Big Mama Thornton “Ball and Chain” (1968)
68. Bobby “Blue” Bland “Further on Up the Road” (1957)
69. W.C. Handy “The Memphis Blues” (1912)
70. Jimmy Reed “Big Boss Man” (1960)

71. Buddy Guy “Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues” (1991)
72. Skip James “Devil Got My Woman” (1931)
73. Fleetwood Mac “Black Magic Woman” (1968)
74. Howlin’ Wolf “The Little Red Rooster” (1961)
75. Robert Johnson “Me and the Devil Blues” (1937)
76. Canned Heat “Going Up the Country” (1968)
77. Eddie Boyd “Five Long Years” (1952)
78. Sonny Boy Williamson II “Help Me” (1963)
79. Louis Jordan “I Know What You’re Putting Down” (1946)
80. T-Bone Walker “Mean Old World” (1942)

81. John Lee Hooker “I’m in the Mood” (1951)
82. Etta James “I’d Rather Go Blind” (1968)
83. Robert Johnson “Stop Breakin’ Down” (1937)
84. Tampa Red with Georgia Tom “It’s Tight Like That” (1928)
85. Albert Collins “If Trouble Was Money” (1984)
86. Elmore James “One Way Out” (1961)
87. Big Joe Williams “Blues on Highway 49” (1935)
88. Elmore James “It Hurts Me Too” (1965)
89. Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble “Texas Flood” (1983)
90. Howlin’ Wolf “I Ain’t Superstitious” (1961)

91. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band “Born in Chicago” (1965)
92. Memphis Slim “Messin’ Around” (1948)
93. Hound Dog Taylor “Give Me Back My Wig” (1971)
94. Howlin’ Wolf “Back Door Man” (1960)
95. B.B. King “How Blue Can You Get?” (1963)
96. Sonny Boy Williamson II “Eyesight to the Blind” (1951)
97. Robert Johnson “Travelling Riverside Blues” (1937)
98. Roy Brown “Hard Luck Blues” (1950)
99. Son House “Preachin’ Blues” (1930)
100. Muddy Waters “You Shook Me” (1962)