"Messin' with the Kid" is a rhythm and blues-style blues song originally recorded by Junior Wells

Junior Wells

Junior Wells , born Amos Wells Blakemore Jr., was an American Chicago blues vocalist, harmonica player, and recording artist...

 in 1960. It is credited to Chief Records

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...

 owner/songwriter/producer 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...

. Considered a blues standard, it "remains Junior Well's best-known song". "Messin' with the Kid" has been recorded by a variety of blues and other artists.

Original song

"Messin' with the Kid" is an up-tempo twelve-bar blues which alternates between Afro-Cuban

Music of Cuba

The Caribbean island of Cuba has developed a wide range of creolized musical styles, based on its cultural origins in Europe and Africa. Since the 19th century its music has been hugely popular and influential throughout the world...

- and Little Richard

Little Richard

Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...

-style rhythmic accompaniment. According to Junior Wells, the title was inspired by his young daughter Gina. Mel London arrived early at Wells' home to pick him up for a scheduled recording session: "'Where's you Daddy at? Get him up'. 'No, you said you were goin' to be here at nine o'clock. It's not nine o'clock.... You're not goin' to be messin' with the kid'". "The Kid" was a nickname for Wells. Later in the studio, they needed another song for the session: "...one thing led to another and ... it took us five minutes, maybe ten minutes and we had it".

What's this you hear goin' all around town

The people are sayin' you're gonna to put The Kid down

Well oh lord, well look at what you did

You can call it what you wanna, but I call it messin' with The Kid

Wells sang the song, but unlike most of his early singles, he does not play harmonica. The backup is provided by Earl Hooker

Earl Hooker

Earl Hooker was an American Chicago blues guitarist, perhaps best known for his slide guitar playing. Considered a "musician's musician", Hooker performed with blues artists such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Junior Wells, and John Lee Hooker as well as fronting his own bands...

 (and possibly Lacey Gibson) on guitar, Johnny "Big Moose" Walker on piano, Jack Myers on bass, Fred Below

Fred Below

Fred Below was a leading blues drummer, best known for his innovative work with Little Walter and Chess Records in the 1950s. Nobody laid more of the Chicago blues rhythmic foundations, particularly its archetypal backbeat, than Fred Below.-Career:He was born in Chicago, and started playing drums...

 on drums, Jarrett Gibson on tenor saxophone, and Donald Hankins on baritone saxophone.

In 1966, Wells recorded a second version of "Messin' with the Kid". It features a different rhythm arrangement and includes a harmonica solo by Wells with backup by 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...

 on guitar along with Myers and Below. The song was released on the 1966 blues compilation Chicago|The Blues|Today! Vol. 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...

 79216). Wells and Guy used a similar arrangement for "Snatch It Back and Hold It" on their influential 1965 album Hoodoo Man Blues

Hoodoo Man Blues

Hoodoo Man Blues is the 1965 debut album of blues vocalist and harmonica player Junior Wells, performing with the Junior Wells' Chicago Blues Band, an early collaboration with Grammy Award-winning artist Buddy Guy...

. The duo later recorded several live versions of the song, including in 1977 for Live in Montreaux.

Other versions

"Messin' with the Kid" has been recorded by various artists, including Rory Gallagher

Rory Gallagher

William Rory Gallagher, ; 2 March 1948  – 14 June 1995, was an Irish blues-rock multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and bandleader. Born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland, and raised in Cork, Gallagher recorded solo albums throughout the 1970s and 1980s, after forming the band Taste...

 from Live in Europe (1972), Todd Rundgren

Todd Rundgren

Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...

 (with Woody's Truck Stop) from Something/Anything (1972), Johnny Winter

Johnny Winter

John Dawson "Johnny" Winter III is an American blues guitarist, singer, and producer. Best known for his late 1960s and 1970s high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues legend Muddy Waters...

 from White, Hot and Blue

White, Hot and Blue

- Track listing :#"Walking by Myself"#"Slidin' In"#"Divin' Duck Blues"#"One Step at a Time"#"Nickel Blues"#"E.Z. Rider"#"Last Night"#"Messin' with the Kid"#"Honest I Do"- Personnel :*Johnny Winter - Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals...

(1978), The Blues Brothers

The Blues Brothers

The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live...

 on their first album Briefcase Full of Blues

Briefcase Full of Blues

-External links:* *...

(1978), Luther Allison

Luther Allison

Luther Allison was an American blues guitarist. He was born in Widener, Arkansas and moved with his family, at age twelve, to Chicago in 1951. He taught himself guitar and began listening to blues extensively. Three years later he began hanging outside blues nightclubs with the hopes of being...

 from South Side Safari (1983), and Freddie King

Freddie King

Freddie King , thought to have been born as Frederick Christian, originally recording as Freddy King, and nicknamed "the Texas Cannonball", was an influential African-American blues guitarist and singer. He is often mentioned as one of "the Three Kings" of electric blues guitar, along with Albert...

 on Texas Flyer: 1974–1976 (2010).

Several artists have recorded songs based on "Messin' with the Kid", including Earl Hooker, who recorded an instrumental titled "Rockin' with the Kid" (1961 Chief 7031). Also in 1961, Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters

McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...

 recorded an answer song

Answer song

An answer song is, as the name suggests, a song made in answer to a previous song, normally by another artist. It is also known as a response song. The concept became widespread in blues and R&B recorded music in the 1930s through 1950s...

, "Messin' with the Man" (Chess 1796). Blues singer Eddie C. Campbell

Eddie C. Campbell

Eddie C. Campbell is an American blues guitarist and singer, active in the Chicago blues scene.-Biography:...

recorded a Christmas novelty song, titled "Santa's Messin' With The Kid" (1977 from King of the Jungle), in which Santa is "messing with" the wife of the The Kid, until "The Kid ran him out o' town":

Santa come' once a year we all know, didn't use my chimney had a key to my do'

Oh, Lord, look what Santa did, (he's messin' with me)

Call it Merry Christmas?, I say Santa's messin' with The Kid