Guitar Slim

Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones (December 10, 1926 – February 7, 1959) is a New Orleans blues guitar player from the 1940s and 1950s best known for the million-selling song "The Things That I Used to Do" (a song that "shaped rock and roll"), and his flamboyant stage presence.

His recordings

His first recording session was in 1951, and he had a minor rhythm and blues hit in 1952 with "Feelin' Sad", which Ray Charles liked enough to cover, and also to play on Slim's later recordings.

Related Topics:
1951 - Rhythm and blues - 1952 - Ray Charles

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His biggest success was 1954's "The Things That I Used to Do," which is supposed to have come to him in a dream:

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:"A devil and angel fought each other with their own sets of lyrics. Of course, being a blues song, the devil's lyrics had won out."

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The song spent weeks at number one on the R&B charts and sold over a million copies, soon becoming a blues standard. The tour made on the strength of this song sold out a week of dates at the Apollo Theater, something even Sammy Davis, Jr. wasn't able to do.

Related Topics:
Number one on the R&B charts - Blues standard - Apollo Theater - Sammy Davis, Jr.

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Slim was a great drinker and a womanizer; he missed some 1954 tour dates due to a car accident involving alcohol, and he was often said to have a different woman with him every night. He continued to write and tour, and had some other hits such as "It Hurts To Love Someone" and "Down Through The Years," but nothing at the level of "The Things That I Used To Do."

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