3 O'Clock Blues

Lowell Fulson recorded the slow twelve-bar blues in 1946, and it became his first hit when it was released in 1948. King cut it around September 1951 for RPM in an improvised studio in a room at the Memphis YMCA. The sound was rougher than on his earlier Sam Phillips sessions, but the interplay between his voice and guitar was new on record. He used a full band with a horn section, including Evelyn Young on saxophone, and Ike Turner on piano.

RPM released it in December 1951. It entered Billboard's R&B chart on 29 December, stayed 17 weeks and spent five at number one. It gave him his first chance to play to a national audience, brought bigger theater dates and a sharp rise in his pay. He kept it in his shows for life and remade it with Eric Clapton on Riding with the King in 2000. The recording entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014, and the Blues Foundation added it to its hall of fame in 2020.