Mick Hartley

Starting at Poplar Town Hall in East London.

T-Bone Walker in a 1966 Jazz at the Philharmonic concert, in front of a stellar line-up: Dizzy Gillespie, Teddy Wilson, Louis Bellson, Clark Terry, Coleman Hawkins, Zoot Sims, Jimmy Moody, Benny Carter and Bob Cranshaw.

A man who clearly loved playing, and a hugely influential figure:

Chuck Berry named Walker and Louis Jordan as his main influences. B.B. King cited hearing Walker's recording of "Stormy Monday" as his inspiration for getting an electric guitar. Walker was admired by Jimi Hendrix, who imitated Walker's trick of playing the guitar with his teeth.

That's not a bad trilogy when it comes to electric guitar.

And yes, "Stormy Monday" – or, to give the song its full title, "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)" – was a T-Bone original. Though it's a confusing business:

T-Bone Walker was one of the earliest musicians to use the electric guitar. After moving to Los Angeles around 1936, he began performing regularly in the clubs along Central Avenue, then the center of the city's jazz and blues music scene. He started as a singer and dancer with jazz and early jump-blues bands, such as Les Hite and his orchestra, but by 1940 was playing electric guitar and singing in his own small combos. His particular style of jazz-influenced blues guitar and showmanship, which included playing the guitar behind his neck and while doing the splits, brought him to the attention of Capitol Records.

In July 1942, Walker recorded "Mean Old World" and "I Got a Break, Baby" as one of the first artists for the Los Angeles-based record company. Music writer Bill Dahl described the songs as "the first sign of the T-Bone Walker that blues guitar aficionados know and love, his fluid, elegant riffs and mellow, burnished vocals setting a standard that all future blues guitarists would measure themselves by". Shortly thereafter, his recording career was interrupted by the 1942–44 musicians' strike and the diversion of shellac (a key material used in the manufacture of the then-standard ten-inch 78 rpm phonograph record) for the U.S. war effort during World War II. By 1946, Walker signed with producer Ralph Bass and Black & White Records. Although there is conflicting information regarding the recording date, "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)" was released as a single in November 1947.

Meanwhile, "Stormy Monday Blues", a jazz single by Earl Hines and His Orchestra with Billy Eckstine on vocals had become a number one hit on Billboard magazine's Harlem Hit Parade chart in 1942 and also reached number 23 in the magazine's pop chart. Credited to Eckstine, Hines, and Bob Crowder, the composition features a big band arrangement with different lyrics and does not include the words "stormy" or "Monday". The fact that both Walker's and the Eckstine/Hines song include "Stormy Monday" in the title has led to confusion regarding the songs' true titles and authorship.

There are conflicting accounts about the recording date for "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)". In an interview, Walker claimed that he recorded the song in 1940 "just before the war" (the U.S. entered World War II December 7, 1941), but that it was not released because of war-time material restrictions. Journalist Dave Dexter, who worked for Capitol Records in the early 1940s, believed that Walker recorded it for Capitol before the Eckstine/Hines song (March 1942), but that it was not released because of the unavailability of shellac and the recording ban. However, Walker's first single as a band leader, "Mean Old World", which was recorded in July 1942, was released in 1945 by Capitol. One sessionography places the recording of "Stormy Monday" on September 13, 1947, during his third session for Black & White Records. Blues writer Jim O'Neal noted that blues discographies do not show a recording date before 1947.

Got that? Anyway, here it is, the original.