It Hurts Me Too
Encyclopedia
"It Hurts Me Too" is a blues standard
that is "one of the most interpreted blues [songs]". First recorded in 1940 by Tampa Red
, the song is a mid-tempo eight-bar blues that features slide guitar. It borrows from earlier blues songs and has been recorded by many blues and other artists.
1637). The melody lines are nearly identical and instrumentally they are similar, although the latter has an extra bar in the turnaround, giving it nine bars. "Sam Hill from Louisville", one of several pseudonyms of Walter Vinson
(or Vincson), recorded "Things 'Bout Coming My Way" shortly before Tampa Red (1931 Brunswick
7216). Vinson's version is based on his earlier recording with the Mississippi Sheiks
, "Sitting on Top of the World
" (1930 OKeh 8784). Both songs share several elements with "You Got to Reap What You Sow", recorded by Tampa Red in 1929 (Vocalion
1404) and by Leroy Carr
and Scrapper Blackwell
in 1928 (Vocalion 1232). The melody lines, played on slide guitar by Tampa Red and sung by Carr, are similar to those in the later songs. Carr and Blackwell's song has elements of their own earlier 1928 song "How Long, How Long Blues
" (Vocalion 1191). "How Long, How Long Blues" has been described as one of the first blues standards and the inspiration for many blues songs of the era.
In 1949, Tampa Red
recorded a variation of "It Hurts Me Too", titled "When Things Go Wrong with You" (Victor 22-0035). The song was recast in the style of a Chicago blues, with electric guitar and a more up to date backing arrangement. The song was a hit and reached #9 in the Billboard R&B chart in 1949. (The original "It Hurts Me Too" was released before Billboard or a similar reliable service began tracking such releases, so it is difficult to gauge which version was more popular, although the former's title won out over the latter's.) Although the song retained the refrain "When things go wrong, so wrong with you, it hurts me too", Tampa Red varied the rest of the lyrics somewhat. This would become the pattern for future versions, in which succeeding artists would interpret the song with some of their own lyrics.
and Big Bill Broonzy
. When Elmore James
recorded it in 1957 (Chief
7004), he (or Chief's owner, Mel London
, who is credited on the release) supplied some of the lyrics that are most familiar today:
James' 1957 Chief version did not appear in the charts, but after he recorded the song again in late 1962 or early 1963 for the Fire/Fury/Enjoy group of labels, it became a hit. The song used the same lyrics as his earlier version, but featured more prominent slide guitar work. When it was released in 1965 (Enjoy
2015), two years after James' death, "It Hurts Me Too" spent eight weeks in the R&B chart, where it reached #25. The song also appeared in the Billboard Pop chart
at #106, which was James' only single to do so. Subsequent versions of "It Hurts Me Too" often showed Elmore James' influences, either in the lyrics or guitar parts.
made the song one of his standards and often used James' lyrics. He recorded it several times, including as a single in 1962 (Chief 7035), for the 1966 compilation album Chicago/The Blues/Today! Volume 1 (Vanguard
VSD 79216), and in 1979 for his Pleading the Blues album with Buddy Guy
(Isabel 900.501).
album 1967), Chuck Berry
(Live at Fillmore Auditorium 1967), Savoy Brown
(Blue Matter
1968), Bob Dylan
(Self Portrait
1970), Hound Dog Taylor
(Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers
1971), Grateful Dead
(Ladies and Gentlemen... the Grateful Dead 1971), Eric Clapton
(From the Cradle
1994), Susan Tedeschi
(Better Days (Susan Tedeschi album) 1995), Gov't Mule
with Little Milton
(Mulennium
1999), and Keb Mo The Door
(2000).
Blues standard
A blues standard is a blues song that is widely known, performed, and recorded by blues artists. The following list identifies blues standards and some of the blues artists that have recorded them...
that is "one of the most interpreted blues [songs]". First recorded in 1940 by Tampa Red
Tampa Red
Tampa Red , born Hudson Woodbridge but known from childhood as Hudson Whittaker, was an American Chicago blues musician....
, the song is a mid-tempo eight-bar blues that features slide guitar. It borrows from earlier blues songs and has been recorded by many blues and other artists.
Origins
"It Hurts Me Too" is based on "Things 'Bout Comin' My Way", recorded by Tampa Red in 1931 (OKehOkeh Records
Okeh Records began as an independent record label based in the United States of America in 1918. From 1926 on, it was a subsidiary of Columbia Records.-History:...
1637). The melody lines are nearly identical and instrumentally they are similar, although the latter has an extra bar in the turnaround, giving it nine bars. "Sam Hill from Louisville", one of several pseudonyms of Walter Vinson
Walter Vinson
Walter Vinson was an American Memphis blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a member of the Mississippi Sheiks, worked with Bo Chatmon and his brothers, and co-wrote the blues standard, "Sitting on Top of the World"...
(or Vincson), recorded "Things 'Bout Coming My Way" shortly before Tampa Red (1931 Brunswick
Brunswick Records
Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...
7216). Vinson's version is based on his earlier recording with the Mississippi Sheiks
Mississippi Sheiks
The Mississippi Sheiks were a popular and influential guitar and fiddle group of the 1930s. They were notable mostly for playing country blues, but were adept at many styles of United States popular music of the time, and their records were bought by both black and white audiences.In 2004, they...
, "Sitting on Top of the World
Sitting on Top of the World
"Sitting on Top of the World" is a folk-blues song written by Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatmon, core members of the Mississippi Sheiks, a popular country blues band of the 1930s...
" (1930 OKeh 8784). Both songs share several elements with "You Got to Reap What You Sow", recorded by Tampa Red in 1929 (Vocalion
Vocalion Records
Vocalion Records is a record label active for many years in the United States and in the United Kingdom.-History:Vocalion was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Piano Company of New York City, which introduced a retail line of phonographs at the same time. The name was derived from one of their...
1404) and by Leroy Carr
Leroy Carr
Leroy Carr was an American blues singer, songwriter and pianist, who developed a laid-back, crooning technique and whose popularity and style influenced such artists as Nat King Cole and Ray Charles. He first became famous for "How Long, How Long Blues" on Vocalion Records in 1928.-Life and...
and Scrapper Blackwell
Scrapper Blackwell
Francis Hillman "Scrapper" Blackwell was an American blues guitarist and singer; best known as half of the guitar-piano duo he formed with Leroy Carr in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was an acoustic single-note picker in the Chicago blues and Piedmont blues style, with some critics noting...
in 1928 (Vocalion 1232). The melody lines, played on slide guitar by Tampa Red and sung by Carr, are similar to those in the later songs. Carr and Blackwell's song has elements of their own earlier 1928 song "How Long, How Long Blues
How Long, How Long Blues
"How Long, How Long Blues" is a traditional eight bar blues song, made famous by Leroy Carr on his 1928 Vocalion Records recording with the guitarist Scrapper Blackwell...
" (Vocalion 1191). "How Long, How Long Blues" has been described as one of the first blues standards and the inspiration for many blues songs of the era.
In 1949, Tampa Red
Red
Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...
recorded a variation of "It Hurts Me Too", titled "When Things Go Wrong with You" (Victor 22-0035). The song was recast in the style of a Chicago blues, with electric guitar and a more up to date backing arrangement. The song was a hit and reached #9 in the Billboard R&B chart in 1949. (The original "It Hurts Me Too" was released before Billboard or a similar reliable service began tracking such releases, so it is difficult to gauge which version was more popular, although the former's title won out over the latter's.) Although the song retained the refrain "When things go wrong, so wrong with you, it hurts me too", Tampa Red varied the rest of the lyrics somewhat. This would become the pattern for future versions, in which succeeding artists would interpret the song with some of their own lyrics.
Elmore James versions
Several versions of "It Hurts Me Too" were recorded in the 1940s and 1950s, inclding those by Stick McGheeStick McGhee
Granville Henry McGhee, also known as Stick McGhee, was an African-American jump blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, best known for his blues song, "Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee".-Early life:...
and Big Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy was a prolific American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played country blues to mostly black audiences. Through the ‘30s and ‘40s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with white audiences...
. When Elmore James
Elmore James
Elmore James was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and band leader. He was known as "the King of the Slide Guitar" and had a unique guitar style, noted for his use of loud amplification and his stirring voice.-Biography:James was born Elmore Brooks in the old Richland community in...
recorded it in 1957 (Chief
Chief Records
Chief Records was an independent record label that operated from 1957 to 1964. Best known for its recordings of Chicago blues artists Elmore James, Junior Wells, Magic Sam, and Earl Hooker, the label had a diverse roster and included R&B artists Lillian Offitt and Ricky Allen.Chief Records was...
7004), he (or Chief's owner, Mel London
Mel London
Mel London was a songwriter, record producer, and record label owner. He was active in the Chicago blues and R&B scenes in the 1950s and 1960s...
, who is credited on the release) supplied some of the lyrics that are most familiar today:
- You say you hurting, you almost lost your mind
- The man you love, he hurts you all the time
- When things go wrong, go wrong with you
- It hurts me too
James' 1957 Chief version did not appear in the charts, but after he recorded the song again in late 1962 or early 1963 for the Fire/Fury/Enjoy group of labels, it became a hit. The song used the same lyrics as his earlier version, but featured more prominent slide guitar work. When it was released in 1965 (Enjoy
Enjoy Records
Enjoy Records was a record label owned and operated by Bobby Robinson from 1962 through the mid-1980s, and was run out of his record shop at 125th Street and 8th Ave. in Harlem...
2015), two years after James' death, "It Hurts Me Too" spent eight weeks in the R&B chart, where it reached #25. The song also appeared in the Billboard Pop chart
Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles
The Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. It lists the top 25 singles below number 100 that have not yet charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Sometimes, however, singles halt their progress on this chart, and never appear on the Hot 100...
at #106, which was James' only single to do so. Subsequent versions of "It Hurts Me Too" often showed Elmore James' influences, either in the lyrics or guitar parts.
Junior Wells versions
Junior WellsJunior Wells
Junior Wells , born Amos Wells Blakemore Jr., was an American Chicago blues vocalist, harmonica player, and recording artist...
made the song one of his standards and often used James' lyrics. He recorded it several times, including as a single in 1962 (Chief 7035), for the 1966 compilation album Chicago/The Blues/Today! Volume 1 (Vanguard
Vanguard Records
Vanguard Records is a record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York. It started as a classical label, but is perhaps best known for its catalogue of recordings by a number of pivotal folk and blues artists from the 1960s; the Bach Guild was a subsidiary...
VSD 79216), and in 1979 for his Pleading the Blues album with Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
(Isabel 900.501).
Other versions
"It Hurts Me Too" has been recorded by many blues and other artists, including: John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers (from the expanded A Hard RoadA Hard Road
A Hard Road is a 1967 electric blues album recorded by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers featuring Peter Green on lead guitar, John McVie on bass, Aynsley Dunbar on drums and John Almond. Tracks 5, 7 and 13 feature the horn section of Alan Skidmore and Ray Warleigh...
album 1967), Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
(Live at Fillmore Auditorium 1967), Savoy Brown
Savoy Brown
Savoy Brown, originally known as the Savoy Brown Blues Band, are a British blues rock band, formed in 1965, in Battersea, South West London...
(Blue Matter
Blue Matter (album)
Blue Matter is the third album by the band Savoy Brown. Teaming up once again with producer Mike Vernon, it finds them experimenting even more within the blues framework. Several tracks feature piano as well as trombone.This album featured a mix of live and studio recordings...
1968), Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
(Self Portrait
Self Portrait (Bob Dylan album)
Self Portrait is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's tenth studio album, released by Columbia Records in June 1970.Self Portrait was Dylan's second double album, and features mostly cover versions of well-known pop and folk songs. Also included are a handful of instrumentals and original compositions...
1970), Hound Dog Taylor
Hound Dog Taylor
Theodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor was an American Chicago blues guitarist and singer.-Career:Taylor was born in Natchez, Mississippi in 1915 . He originally played piano, but began playing guitar when he was 20...
(Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers
Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers
Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers is the 1971 debut album of Theodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor.Cub Coda of Allmusic describes it as "wild, raucous, crazy music straight out of the South Side clubs", and calls it "one of the greatest slide guitar albums of all time"...
1971), Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
(Ladies and Gentlemen... the Grateful Dead 1971), Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
(From the Cradle
From the Cradle
From the Cradle is a blues cover album by Eric Clapton. Released on 13 September 1994 by Reprise Records, the album was Eric Clapton's long awaited follow-up to his massively-successful live album, Unplugged...
1994), Susan Tedeschi
Susan Tedeschi
Susan Tedeschi is an American blues and soul musician, who has received multiple Grammy Award nominations, and is well-known for her singing voice, guitar playing, stage presence, and marriage to blues guitarist Derek Trucks...
(Better Days (Susan Tedeschi album) 1995), Gov't Mule
Gov't Mule
Gov't Mule is a Southern rock jam band formed in 1994 as an Allman Brothers Band side project by Warren Haynes and Allen Woody.The band released their debut album Gov't Mule in 1995...
with Little Milton
Little Milton
James Milton Campbell, Jr. , better known as Little Milton, was an American electric blues, rhythm and blues, and soul singer and guitarist, best known for his hit records "Grits Ain't Groceries" and "We're Gonna Make It."-Biography:Milton was born James Milton Campbell, Jr., in the Mississippi...
(Mulennium
Mulennium
Mulennium is a live release by the band Gov't Mule. The release includes all three sets from the band's December 31, 1999/January 1, 2000 New Year's Eve show at the Roxy Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The band had headlined the same venue exactly one year before, which resulted in their second...
1999), and Keb Mo The Door
The Door (Keb' Mo' album)
-Track listing:All songs written by Kevin Moore unless otherwise noted.# "The Door"# "Loola Loo"# "It Hurts Me Too"# "Come On Back"# "Stand Up "# "Anyway"# "Don't You Know"# "It's All Coming Back"# "Gimme What You Got"...
(2000).