Nearly half-way through the most-DJ’d blue series – the Spotify playlist is growing and I hope you’re all enjoying the music!
As I’ve been DJing since 2007, and have had a pretty steep learning curve in that time, this will probably throw up some bizarre choices and guilty secrets. Where possible, I’ll put in links where you can listen to the tracks.
These are not necessarily my all-time favourite tracks, though it’s probably not far off it, and I can’t promise they’re all the best blues dance tracks ever. They’re just the ones I’ve played the most over the last thirteen years.
I’ve created a Spotify playlist to host all the tracks (or all the ones on Spotify anyway) – so each week, I’ll add the tracks for the week. You can listen to it here!
| Track | Artist | Album | Time | BPM | Plays | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 70 | Stop This World | Diana Krall | The Girl In The Other Room | 3:59 | 78 | 21 |
| Love this song. A lot to play around with in a dance. Listen on Spotify |
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| 69 | Seafood Blues | Champion Jack Dupree | Two Classic Albums Plus 40s & 50s Singles (Blues From The Gu | 3:18 | 91 | 21 |
| I’m honestly not surprised that there’s not a lot more from Champion Jack Dupree on this list (there’s a little, but not as much as he deserves – you could play whole sets of Champion Jack Dupree, and they’d be amazing) On the other hand, don’t think too hard about the lyrics to this one. Just … no. Listen on Spotify |
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| 68 | Mannish Boy | Muddy Waters | Hard Again | 2:56 | 74 | 21 |
| One of Muddy Waters’ best known songs – repetitious, but hypnotic and brilliant. In many ways it sounds like a bragging song, but it’s also a political one – and a reaction against the use of the term “boy” to denigrate Afro Americans. I’ve listened to the song very differently since learning that. Listen on Spotify |
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| 67 | Knock 123 | Imelda May | Love Tattoo | 5:29 | 44 | 21 |
| Gorgeously slow and smouldering, with Imelda May’s incredible voice, some subtle drum rhythms rumbling away in the background, and some lovely moments of stillness. Listen on Spotify |
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| 66 | Ain’t Doing Too Bad (Parts 1 and 2) | Bobby Blue Bland | Blues Masters: The Greatest | 5:02 | 112 | 21 |
| Cheerful, upbeat, fun. I especially love the piano parts in this. Listen on Spotify |
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| 65 | Year Of ’29 | Lowell Fulson | Tramp/Soul | 3:44 | 65 | 22 |
| Another from Tramp / Soul gentle rhythmic song from Lowell Fulsom. Just get the whole album. It’s amazing. Listen on Spotify |
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| 64 | Shoes Of Another Man | Brother Yusef | Back At The Crossroads Project | 4:37 | 99 | 22 |
| You can tell it’s Brother Yusef within seconds of the track starting. Chunky rhythmic hard-edged guitar… then that incredible voice work starts. Listen on Spotify |
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| 63 | Death Came A Knockin’ | Ruthie Foster | Runaway Soul | 3:22 | 103 | 22 |
| It’s funny how cheerful an “everyone dies” song can sound. Great song though – and listening to it for this post, I’m suddenly noticing a lot of detail and intricacy in the playing and singing that I’ve somehow missed before. An amazing piece of music. Watch on YouTube |
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| 62 | Upsettin’ Me | Screamin’ Jay Hawkins | Best Of Bizarre Sessions | 3:02 | 65 | 23 |
| Screamin’ Jay Hawkins is … odd, and a lot of his songs degenerate into a load of very very weird noises in place of vocals. Some start like that. This one is surprisingly normal – a great jaunty blues number. Listen on Spotify |
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| 61 | Summertime | Gene Harris and the Ray Brown Trio | The Best of the Concorde Years | 7:06 | 62 | 23 |
| Gene Harris’ Summertime is something special. Absolutely not one you can play in most blues sets – it comes out on those rare occasions when you need something unusual, the dancers can and will cope with anything, and the mood hits. Going from a looooong intro of slow and intricate stillness, and gradually ramping up into fast boogie piano – and one where I just love listening to all the intricacies and subtleties. Worth looking up on YouTube as well, where you can watch it being performed. Listen on Spotify |
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