How Blue Can You Get

Johnny Moore's Three Blazers first recorded the slow twelve-bar blues in 1949, and Leonard Feather and his wife Jane are credited as writers. Louis Jordan cut it with a big band in 1951. King first recorded it as Downhearted on the 1963 album Blues in My Heart, then remade it as How Blue Can You Get and ABC-Paramount released it as a single in 1964. It reached number 97 on the Hot 100. The remake has more drive from the horns and a stop-time interlude.

The first live version appeared on Live at the Regal, where King told the crowd to pay attention to the lyrics more than to his singing or the band. Live versions also appear on Live in Cook County Jail and Live in Japan. In 1996 Primitive Radio Gods sampled a line from the Cook County Jail version for the single Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand. In the 1998 film Blues Brothers 2000 King played it as part of the fictional Louisiana Gator Boys.