Blues with a Feeling

Little Walter follows much of McVea's verses and arrangement, however, he updates the song in his own style.^[2] It is performed as a slow blues with Walter playing a distinctive harp intro and accompaniment to his vocals.^[2] When Little Walter recorded "Blues with a Feeling" in Chicago on July 23, 1953, he was backed by one of the classic Chicago blues bands.^[5] Sometimes known as the Aces, Dave Myers and Louis Myers (or possibly Jimmy Rogers) provide guitars, with Willie Dixon on upright bass, and Fred Below on drums.^[5] Walter biographer Tony Glover notes the "nice interplay between the guitar and the harp ... with Below providing momentum with his shuffling brush work, and an effective stop-time vocal verse from Walter near the end".^[2]

Checker Records, a Chess Records subsidiary that issued most of Walter's recordings, released the song as a single in 1953.^[5] According to Glover, Checker choose the second of two takes, largely due to a faulty audio connection which affected the first.^[2] The single debuted on two of Billboard's R&B charts on October 10, 1953, eventually reaching number two on the Juke Box chart and number six on the Best Seller chart.^[4]

The song is found on many Little Walter compilations, including his first, Best of Little Walter (1958), the comprehensive The Essential Little Walter (1993),^[5] and, as a part of The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection, His Best (1997). An alternate take, recorded in September 1953, was released on Blues with a Feeling: Chess Collectables, Vol. 3 (1995).^[6] Unlike most of Walter's alternate takes, this later recording differs little from the original.^[6]

Little Walter's adaptation of "Blues with a Feeling" has been identified as a blues standard and a "necessary passage of every beginning harmonica player" by blues historian Gérard Herzhaft [fr].^[7] Music writer Mary Katherine Aldin notes that it "has been cited by a number of his imitators as the song that inspired them to take up harmonica".^[6] Harmonica instructional book author Winslow Yerxa identifies it as one of the best-known "tried-and-true harmonica tunes" and one of six blues favorites.^[8][9]

Although "Blues with a Feeling" was written and originally performed and recorded by Tarrant, Little Walter usually receives the credit for the tune.^[6] Many subsequent releases also credit him, leading Aldin to call it "maybe Walter's most covered song".^[6]