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"Key to the Highway" is an eight bar blues
Eight bar blues

An eight bar blues is a typical blues chord progression, taking eight time signature to the verse. "Heartbreak Hotel", "How Long, How Long Blues", "Trouble in Mind ", "Ain't Nobody's Business" and "Cherry Red" are all eight-bar blues standards....
 song by Charles 'Chas' Segar and William 'Big Bill' Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy

Big Bill Broonzy was a prolific United States blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played Country blues to mostly black audiences....
.

It is considered one of Broonzy's greatest songs and has become a recognised blues standard.

Originally written around 1945, a 2'35" length version of the song appeared on Broonzy's classic Folkways Recordings of the 1950s, re-released on CD in 2000.
to the Highway" has since been played and/or recorded by numerous other well known artists including



Clapton, who considered Broonzy as one of his first influences, recorded the best-known version of the song for Derek and the Dominos
Derek and the Dominos

Derek and the Dominos were a blues-rock Supergroup formed in the spring of 1970 by guitarist and singer Eric Clapton with keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon , who had all played with Clapton in Delaney, Bonnie & Friends....
' 1970 landmark album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is a rock music album by Derek and the Dominos. It is regarded as one of the high points in Eric Clapton's career....
.






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"Key to the Highway" is an eight bar blues
Eight bar blues

An eight bar blues is a typical blues chord progression, taking eight time signature to the verse. "Heartbreak Hotel", "How Long, How Long Blues", "Trouble in Mind ", "Ain't Nobody's Business" and "Cherry Red" are all eight-bar blues standards....
 song by Charles 'Chas' Segar and William 'Big Bill' Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy

Big Bill Broonzy was a prolific United States blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played Country blues to mostly black audiences....
.

It is considered one of Broonzy's greatest songs and has become a recognised blues standard.

Originally written around 1945, a 2'35" length version of the song appeared on Broonzy's classic Folkways Recordings of the 1950s, re-released on CD in 2000.

Cover versions

"Key to the Highway" has since been played and/or recorded by numerous other well known artists including

  • Luther Allison
    Luther Allison

    File:LutherAllison1996.jpgLuther Allison was an United States blues guitarist. He was born in Widener, Arkansas, Arkansas and moved with his family, at age twelve, to Chicago, Illinois in 1951....
  • The Band
    The Band

    The Band was a rock music group active from 1967 to 1976 and again from 1983 to 1999. The original group consisted of four Canadians: Robbie Robertson ; Richard Manuel ; Garth Hudson ; and Rick Danko , and one American, Levon Helm ....
     on the 2000 remaster of Music from Big Pink
    Music from Big Pink

    Music from Big Pink is the 1968 debut album by rock music band The Band. It features one of their best-known songs, "The Weight."...
  • B.B. King featured in the movie-documentary The Road to Memphis
    The Road To Memphis

    The Road To Memphis is a documentary directed by Richard Pearce. The film follows the career of Blues musician B.B. King. It features performances by B.B....
  • Carey Bell
    Carey Bell

    Carey Bell was an American musician who played the harmonica in the musical style of Chicago blues. Bell played harp and bass for other blues icons for decades, including Earl Hooker, Robert Nighthawk, Lowell Fulson, Eddie Taylor,Louisiana Red and Jimmy Dawkins....
     & Lurrie Bell
    Lurrie Bell

    Lurrie Bell is a blues guitarist and singer. His father was renowned blues harmonica player Carey Bell....
  • Brook Benton
    Brook Benton

    Brook Benton was an United States singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when he scored hits such as "It's Just a Matter of Time " and "Endlessly ", many of which he co-wrote....
  • Eddie Boyd
    Eddie Boyd

    Edward Riley Boyd known as Eddie Boyd was a blues piano player, born on Stovall's Plantation near Clarksdale, Mississippi, Mississippi....
     with Peter Green
    Peter Green (musician)

    Peter Green is a United Kingdom blues-rock guitarist and founder of the band Fleetwood Mac.A figurehead in the British blues movement, Green inspired B....
     on Eddie Boyd and His Blues Band, Decca
    Decca Records

    Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 in music by Edward Lewis . Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; later the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
     (1967)
  • Eric Clapton
    Eric Clapton

    Eric Patrick Clapton Order of the British Empire is an English blues-rock guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer. He is "probably most famous for his mastery of the Stratocaster guitar." Clapton has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Yardbirds, of Cream , and as a solo performer, being the only person to...
     with Derek & the Dominos and also with B.B. King
  • Honeyboy Edwards on Blues Blues (1975)
  • Jazz Gillum
    Jazz Gillum

    William McKinley Gillum , known as Jazz Gillum, was an United States blues harmonica player.He was born in Indianola, Mississippi, Mississippi....
  • Buddy Guy
    Buddy Guy

    George "Buddy" Guy is a five-time Grammy Award-winning United States blues and rock music guitarist and singer. Known as an inspiration to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and other guitarists, Guy is considered an important exponent of Chicago blues....
  • John Hammond
    John P. Hammond

    John P. Hammond , is a blues singer and guitarist. He is the son of the famed record producer and talent scout John H. Hammond, which makes him a great-great-grandson of William Henry Vanderbilt and a member of the Vanderbilt family....
     on Frogs for Snakes (1981)
  • John Lee Hooker
    John Lee Hooker

    John Lee Hooker was an influential United States post-war blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter born in Coahoma County, Mississippi near Clarksdale, Mississippi....
  • Johnnie Johnson
    Johnnie Johnson (musician)

    File:JohnnieJohnson1996.jpgJohnnie Johnson was a piano player and blues musician. His work with Chuck Berry led to his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame....
     on Johnnie B. Bad (1991)
  • Detroit Junior
    Detroit Junior

    Emery ?Detroit Junior? Williams, Jr. was a blues pianist, vocalist, and songwriter. He is know for songs such as "So Unhappy", "Call My Job", "If I Hadn't Been High", and "Money Tree ."...
     on Live at the Toledo Museum of Art (2003)
  • Freddie King
    Freddie King

    Freddie "The Texas Cannonball" King was an influential American blues guitarist and singer best known for his recordings from early 1960s including "Hide Away" and "Have You Ever Loved A Woman" and the album Burglar recorded in 1974....
     on Getting Ready (1971)
  • Mance Lipscomb
    Mance Lipscomb

    Mance Lipscomb was an influential blues singer, guitarist and songster. Born Beau De Glen Lipscomb near Navasota, Texas, Texas, he as a youth took the name of 'Mance' from a friend of his oldest brother Charlie ....
     on Texas Songster Volume 2 (1964) and Live at the Cabale (1998)
  • Snooky Pryor
    Snooky Pryor

    Snooky Pryor was an United States blues harp player. He claimed to have pioneered the now-common method of playing amplified harmonica by cupping a small microphone in his hands along with the harmonica, although his earliest records in the late 1940s he did not utilize this method....
  • Sam Samudio as B-side of Me and Bobby McGee (1970, ATLANTIC 45-2767)
  • Steve Miller Band
    Steve Miller Band

    Steve Miller Band is an American rock music band formed in 1966 in San Francisco, California. The band is led by Steve Miller on guitar and lead vocals....
     on their very first album, Children of the Future
    Children of the Future (album)

    Children of the Future is the first album by United States Rock music band Steve Miller , released in 1968....
     (1968)
  • Rolling Stones on Dirty Work
    Dirty Work (album)

    Dirty Work is The Rolling Stones' 18th studio album . It was released on 24 March 1986 on the Rolling Stones Records by Sony Music. Produced by Steve Lillywhite, the album was recorded during a period when relations between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards soured considerably, and is often regarded as a low point for the band....
  • Memphis Slim
    Memphis Slim

    John "Memphis Slim" Chatman was a blues music pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump-blues, included saxophones, bass, drums, and piano....
  • Mick Taylor
    Mick Taylor

    Michael "Mick" Kevin Taylor and another performance from the Old Grey Whistle Test seem to be the only material available from this brief collaboration....
     jamming with Kieth Richards in 1981
  • Sonny Terry
    Sonny Terry

    Saunders Terrell, better known as Sonny Terry was a Blindness blues musician. He was most widely known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included human voice whoops and hollers, and imitations of trains and fox hunts....
     & Brownie McGhee
    Brownie McGhee

    Walter Brown McGhee was a folk music-blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaborations with the harmonica player Sonny Terry....
  • Little Walter
    Little Walter

    Little Walter was a blues singer, harmonica player, and guitarist.Jacobs is generally included among blues music greats?his revolutionary harmonica technique has earned comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix in its impact....
     available on 1957-1967 Chess Blues Classics
  • Muddy Waters
    Muddy Waters

    McKinley Morganfield , better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician and is generally considered "the Father of Chicago blues"....
     on his 1971 London Sessions album
  • Junior Wells
    Junior Wells

    Junior Wells , born Amos Blakemore, was a Blues music vocalist and harmonica player based in Chicago who was famous for playing with Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, The Rolling Stones and Van Morrison among others....
  • Joe Williams
    Joe Williams (jazz singer)

    Joe Williams was a well-known jazz vocalist, a baritone singing a mixture of blues music, ballads, popular songs, and jazz standards....
  • Jimmy Witherspoon
    Jimmy Witherspoon

    Jimmy Witherspoon was an United States blues singer.James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas, Arkansas. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U....


Clapton versions

Eric Clapton, who considered Broonzy as one of his first influences, recorded the best-known version of the song for Derek and the Dominos
Derek and the Dominos

Derek and the Dominos were a blues-rock Supergroup formed in the spring of 1970 by guitarist and singer Eric Clapton with keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon , who had all played with Clapton in Delaney, Bonnie & Friends....
' 1970 landmark album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is a rock music album by Derek and the Dominos. It is regarded as one of the high points in Eric Clapton's career....
. Lasting over 9 minutes, this version was essentially an accidental, impromptu jam between Clapton and Duane Allman
Duane Allman

Howard Duane Allman was an United States lead guitarist, co-founder of the Southern rock group the Allman Brothers Band, and respected session musician....
. They happened to have heard singer Sam Samudio ("Sam the Sham
Sam the Sham

Sam the Sham is the stage name of Rock and roll singer Domingo ?Sam? Samudio from Dallas, Texas, USA. Sam the Sham was later known for camp robe and turban and hauling his equipment in a 1952 Packard hearse with maroon velvet curtains....
") doing the same song in a neighbouring studio and spontaneously started playing it. Their startled record producer, Tom Dowd
Tom Dowd

Tom Dowd was an United States recording engineer and record producer for Atlantic Records. He was credited with innovating the multi-track recording method....
, heard what was happening and quickly told the engineers to "hit the goddamn machine!" and start the tape recorder running. This explains why the track starts with a fade-in to playing clearly already underway.

Clapton also played on Johnnie Johnson
Johnnie Johnson (musician)

File:JohnnieJohnson1996.jpgJohnnie Johnson was a piano player and blues musician. His work with Chuck Berry led to his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame....
's 1991 version and revisited the song in his 2000 collaboration with Blues legend B. B. King
B. B. King

B. B. King is an United States blues guitarist and singer-songwriter known for his expressive singing and inimitable guitar playing. As Komara has written, "King introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that would influence virtually every electric blues guitarist that followed." Critic...
, Riding with the King.

Rolling Stones version

A 33-second snippet of "Key to the Highway" appears at the end of the Rolling Stones' album Dirty Work
Dirty Work (album)

Dirty Work is The Rolling Stones' 18th studio album . It was released on 24 March 1986 on the Rolling Stones Records by Sony Music. Produced by Steve Lillywhite, the album was recorded during a period when relations between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards soured considerably, and is often regarded as a low point for the band....
. Originally hidden and uncredited, the track was included as a memorial to Stones founder-member and part time pianist Ian Stewart
Ian Stewart (musician)

Ian Andrew Robert Stewart was a Scottish keyboardist and cofounder of The Rolling Stones. He was dismissed from the line-up in May 1963 but he remained as road manager and piano player....
 (who performs it). Stewart died in 1985, just after the album's completion.

External links