# The 10 Best Blues Tracks of All Time Twelve bars, three chords and a form flexible enough to carry a century. First recorded in 1920, moved north to Chicago and plugged in after the war, and the ancestor of very nearly every American music on this map. - **Origin:** The Mississippi Delta, 1920 - **Tempo:** 60–130 BPM - **Also known as:** delta blues, chicago blues, country blues, electric blues - **Tracks:** 10 - **Updated:** 2026-08-30 - **Canonical page:** https://waxonia.com/genre/blues/ ## The list ### 1. [Robert Johnson](https://waxonia.com/artist/robert-johnson/) — [Cross Road Blues](https://waxonia.com/track/robert-johnson--cross-road-blues/) *1936 · Vocalion* One man, one guitar, and a sense of pursuit that no amount of retelling has managed to domesticate. The myth around Johnson is a distraction from how precise the playing actually is. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Robert%20Johnson%20Cross%20Road%20Blues) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxi4XkIVWLQ) ### 2. [Howlin' Wolf](https://waxonia.com/artist/howlin-wolf/) — [Smokestack Lightnin'](https://waxonia.com/track/howlin-wolf--smokestack-lightnin/) *1956 · Chess* One chord, a harmonica and a howl, held for three minutes without developing at all. The most hypnotic record on this list and the one the British bands could never get right. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Howlin'%20Wolf%20Smokestack%20Lightnin') · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=VMUt8KdDtTY) ### 3. [Muddy Waters](https://waxonia.com/artist/muddy-waters/) — [I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man](https://waxonia.com/track/muddy-waters--im-your-hoochie-coochie-man/) *1954 · Chess* Willie Dixon's stop-time riff, and the record that turned a Delta form into a band arrangement. Everything electric downstream of here is standing on this bassline. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Muddy%20Waters%20I'm%20Your%20Hoochie%20Coochie%20Man) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=yLlRM27MQag) ### 4. [Mamie Smith](https://waxonia.com/artist/mamie-smith/) — [Crazy Blues](https://waxonia.com/track/mamie-smith--crazy-blues/) *1920 · OKeh* The first blues record ever released, and it sold in numbers nobody in the industry had predicted. An entire market for Black music was discovered by accident, in one afternoon. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Mamie%20Smith%20Crazy%20Blues) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ88uyWYOPk) ### 5. [John Lee Hooker](https://waxonia.com/artist/john-lee-hooker/) — [Boogie Chillen'](https://waxonia.com/track/john-lee-hooker--boogie-chillen/) *1948 · Modern* A foot on a board, one guitar and no interest whatsoever in the bar line. Hooker's refusal to count is not a limitation, and half of rock and roll failed to notice. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/John%20Lee%20Hooker%20Boogie%20Chillen') · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=yzmogN7aj-I) ### 6. [Bessie Smith](https://waxonia.com/artist/bessie-smith/) — [Downhearted Blues](https://waxonia.com/track/bessie-smith--downhearted-blues/) *1923 · Columbia* The Empress of the Blues on her debut, outselling everything around her. Smith phrases like a horn player, which is the technique every singer on the soul list inherited. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Bessie%20Smith%20Downhearted%20Blues) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=k39GO8TVoX4) ### 7. [T-Bone Walker](https://waxonia.com/artist/t-bone-walker/) — [Call It Stormy Monday](https://waxonia.com/track/t-bone-walker--call-it-stormy-monday/) *1947 · Black & White* The electric guitar stops imitating a voice and becomes a lead instrument with its own vocabulary. B.B. King said hearing it was the reason he started; that is the whole review. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/T-Bone%20Walker%20Call%20It%20Stormy%20Monday) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=xifoTGRBhg0) ### 8. [B.B. King](https://waxonia.com/artist/b-b-king/) — [3 O'Clock Blues](https://waxonia.com/track/b-b-king--3-oclock-blues/) *1951 · RPM* King's first hit, and the arrival of the single-note, vibrato-heavy style that became the default setting for lead guitar everywhere for fifty years. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/B.B.%20King%203%20O'Clock%20Blues) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=nPeTtg3fTB8) ### 9. [Blind Willie McTell](https://waxonia.com/artist/blind-willie-mctell/) — [Statesboro Blues](https://waxonia.com/track/blind-willie-mctell--statesboro-blues/) *1928 · Victor* Twelve-string ragtime blues played with a lightness the Delta players never went in for. A reminder that the form was regional long before it was a genre. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Blind%20Willie%20McTell%20Statesboro%20Blues) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=sk4Js6Q58h8) ### 10. [Bo Diddley](https://waxonia.com/artist/bo-diddley/) — [I'm a Man](https://waxonia.com/track/bo-diddley--im-a-man/) *1955 · Checker* A boast, a riff and a maraca, all sharpened to a point. Muddy answered it within months, which is the closest the blues ever came to a rap battle. [Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Bo%20Diddley%20I'm%20a%20Man) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=OKlAiuaYdoI) --- Hand-curated by Waxonia. We host no audio; all links point to streaming platforms.