"How Blue Can You Get" is a song that is a classic of the blues. A slow twelve-bar blues, the song is credited to jazz critic Leonard Feather

Leonard Feather

Leonard Geoffrey Feather was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer who was best known for his music journalism and other writing.-Biography:...

 and his wife, Jane Feather. It has been recorded by several blues and other artists; in 1964, it was a hit for B.B. King and has become a staple of his live shows.

Earlier songs

"How Blue Can You Get" was recorded by Johnny Moore's Three Blazers

Johnny Moore's Three Blazers

Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers were a successful and influential African-American vocal and instrumental group in the 1940s and 1950s.The original members were :-Johnny Moore and his younger brother Oscar grew up in Texas and then Phoenix, Arizona, where they both started playing guitar and formed...

 in 1949. The song was done in the West Coast blues

West Coast blues

The West Coast blues is a type of blues music characterized by jazz and jump blues influences, strong piano-dominated sounds and jazzy guitar solos, which originated from Texas blues players relocated to California in the 1940s...

-style with Moore and his brother, Oscar Moore

Oscar Moore

Oscar Moore was an American swing jazz guitarist.Moore was an integral part of the Nat King Cole Trio during 1937–1947, appearing on virtually all of Cole's records during the period. A superb and influential guitarist, Moore was himself influenced by Charlie Christian...

, on guitars, Billy Valentine on piano and vocal, and Johnny Miller on bass. It was released on the jazz and blues compilation album Singin' the Blues (1960 RCA Camden CAL-588). Feather described the song as having "the type of intimate instrumental setting heard in so many best blues vocal performances of the 1940s". In 1951, Louis Jordan

Louis Jordan

Louis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...

 recorded the song using a big band arrangement (Decca 27648).

B.B. King versions

B.B. King first recorded the song as "Downhearted" which was released on his 1963 Blues in My Heart album (Crown CLP 5309). The song was performed at "a steady, stately pace, its groove punctuated by B.B.'s stinging runs and wailing, sustained notes". King later re-recorded the song as "How Blue Can You Get" for ABC-Paramount, which was released as a single. It "stood out, thanks to the relative simplicity of its arrangement, and the caustic humor of the lyrics. This version featured "more propulsion from the horn section, and B.B. investing his vocal with far more outrage than can be detected on the laidback original". It also added a "vehement stop-time interlude":

I gave you a brand new Ford; you said "I want a Cadillac"

I bought you a ten dollar dinner; you said "Thanks for the snack"

I let you live in my penthouse; you said it was just a shack

I gave you seven children, and now you want to give them back...

"How Blue Can You Get" reached #97 in the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 pop chart in 1964 (Billboard's R&B chart was suspended at the time). The song became a fixture in King's live shows "with enough good punchlines for B.B. to keep it in his act for decades". A live version of the song first appeared on the Live at the Regal

Live at the Regal

Live at the Regal is a 1965 live album by blues guitarist and singer B.B. King. It was recorded on November 21, 1964 at the Regal Theater in Chicago. The album is widely heralded as one of the greatest blues albums ever recorded and is #141 on Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All...

album. Since then, live versions of the song have been included on several live B.B. King albums, such as Live in Cook County Jail

Live in Cook County Jail

Live in Cook County Jail is a 1971 live album by B.B. King recorded in Cook County Jail, Chicago, Illinois. It was ranked as number 499 in the book version of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time...

, Live in Japan, the expanded Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert

Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert

`Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!´ The Rolling Stones in Concert is a live album by The Rolling Stones, released 4 September 1970 on Decca Records in the UK and on London Records in the US. It was recorded in New York and Maryland in November 1969, just before the release of Let It Bleed...

, and the 2008 album Live at the BBC.

Other versions

A variety of artists have recorded "How Blue Can You Get", including Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...

, Albert Collins

Albert Collins

Albert Collins was an American electric blues guitarist and singer whose recording career began in the 1960s in Houston and whose fame eventually took him to stages across the US, Europe, Japan and Australia...

, James Cotton

James Cotton

James Cotton is an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who has performed and recorded with many of the great blues artists of his time as well as with his own band.-Career:...

, Magic Slim

Magic Slim

Magic Slim is an American blues singer and guitarist.-Biography:Magic Slim was forced to give up playing the piano when he lost his little finger in a cotton gin mishap. He moved first to nearby Grenada. He first came to Chicago in 1955 with his friend and mentor Magic Sam...

, Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...

, and Jeff Healey

Jeff Healey

Norman Jeffrey "Jeff" Healey was a blind Canadian jazz and blues-rock vocalist and guitarist who attained musical and personal popularity, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s.-Early life:...

. In 1996, Primitive Radio Gods

Primitive Radio Gods

Primitive Radio Gods are an American alternative rock band from Southern California. Current members consist of frontman Chris O'Connor, who performs vocals and bass; percussionist Tim Lauterio; and Luke McAuliffe, who contributes various additional instrumentation as well as much of the art that...

 sampled the line "I've been downhearted baby, ever since the day we met" for the chorus of their single "Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand

Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand

"Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money in My Hand" is an alternative rock song by the band Primitive Radio Gods. The song appeared on the band's major-label debut album, Rocket, in June 1996, and became a popular radio hit over the next few months, reaching #10 on Hot 100 Airplay in...

", which became a record chart hit.