"Reconsider Baby" is a blues song written and recorded by Lowell Fulson

Lowell Fulson

Lowell Fulson was a big-voiced blues guitarist and songwriter, in the West Coast blues tradition. Fulson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He also recorded for business reasons as Lowell Fullsom and Lowell Fulsom...

 in 1954. Performed 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, it became Fulson's first record chart hit for Checker Records

Checker Records

Checker Records is an inactive record label that was started in 1952 as a subsidiary to Chess Records in Chicago, Illinois. The label was founded by the Chess brothers, Leonard and Phil, who ran the label until they sold it to General Recorded Tape in 1969, shortly before Leonard's death.The label...

, a subsidiary of Chess Records

Chess Records

Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....

. "Reconsider Baby" has become a standard of the blues and has been recorded by numerous blues and other artists.

Original song

Called a "relentless mid-tempo blues", "Reconsider Baby" has a twelve-bar structure with prominent guitar soloing by Fulson. The song was recorded in Dallas, Texas under the supervision of Leonard Chess

Leonard Chess

Leonard Chess was a record company executive and the founder of Chess Records. He was influential in the development of electric blues.- Early life :...

 associate and Jewel Records

Jewel Records (Shreveport record label)

Jewel Records was a record label founded in 1963 by Stan Lewis and based in Shreveport, Louisiana. It had two subsidiary labels, Paula and Ronn. The first of many retail record stores, called Stan's Record Shop, was opened in 1948...

 owner Stan Lewis. Backing Fulson (vocal and guitar) are members of Ray Charles

Ray Charles

Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...

' band David "Fathead" Newman (tenor sax) and Leroy "Hog" Cooper (baritone sax), plus unidentified trumpet, trombone, piano, bass, and drums. The song became a hit, spending fifteen weeks during 1954 and 1955 in the Billboard R&B chart where it reached number three. The song has been included on several Fulson compilation albums, including 1970's Hung Down Head (Chess 9325).

Other versions

Many blues and other artists have recorded Lowell Fulson's "Reconsider Baby". In 1960, Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

 recorded it for his Elvis Is Back!

Elvis Is Back!

Elvis Is Back! is the tenth album by Elvis Presley, released on RCA Victor Records in mono and stereo, LPM/LSP 2231, in April 1960. Recording sessions took place on March 20 and April 3, 1960, at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee. It was Presley's first album to be released in true stereo...

album. Presley recorded an earlier version in 1956 during a jam session at Sun Studio

Sun Studio

Sun Studio is a recording studio opened by rock pioneer Sam Phillips at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 3, 1950. It was originally called Memphis Recording Service, sharing the same building with the Sun Records label business...

 with Carl Perkins

Carl Perkins

Carl Lee Perkins was an American rockabilly musician who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning during 1954...

 and Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...

, later known as the "Million Dollar Quartet

Million Dollar Quartet

"Million Dollar Quartet" is the name given to recordings made on Tuesday December 4, 1956 in the Sun Record Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. The recordings were of an impromptu jam session among Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. It was arguably the first...

"; he also recorded several live versions in the 1960s and 1970s. Other versions include those by Bobby Bland

Bobby Bland

Robert Calvin Bland better known as Bobby "Blue" Bland, is an American singer of blues and soul. He is an original member of the Beale Streeters, and is sometimes referred to as the "Lion of the Blues"...

 (in 1964 from his album Ain't Nothing You Can Do); Magic Sam

Magic Sam

Samuel "Magic Sam" Gene Maghett was an American Chicago blues musician. Maghett was born in Grenada, Mississippi, United States, and learned to play the blues from listening to records by Muddy Waters and Little Walter...

 (1966 as "Hate to See You Go" from Magic Touch); Ike and Tina Turner (1969 Outta Season); 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...

 (1972 The Texas Cannonball); 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...

 (1994 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...

); Robin Trower

Robin Trower

Robin Leonard Trower , known professionally as Robin Trower, is an English rock guitarist who achieved success with Procol Harum during the 1960s, and then again as the bandleader of his own power trio.-Biography:...

 (1994 20th Century Blues); and Joe Bonamassa

Joe Bonamassa

Joe Bonamassa is an American blues rock guitarist and singer.-Early life:Bonamassa was born and raised in New Hartford, United States. His parents owned and ran a guitar shop. He is a fourth-generation musician...

 (2004 Had to Cry Today).

Accolades

In 1993, Fulson's original "Reconsider Baby" was inducted into the Blues Foundation

Blues Foundation

The Blues Foundation is an American nonprofit corporation, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, that is affiliated with more than 175 Blues organizations from various parts of the world....

 Hall of Fame in the "Classics of Blues Recordings" category. The song is also included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...

's list of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll".