The History of 'Rollin' and Tumblin'

In blues and jazz, we often refer to classic songs that shaped the genre, or "standards", to get our fix or to be influenced by the legends as inspiration for our own music.

One such blues standard is "Rollin' and Tumblin", which started out as "Roll and Tumble Blues" in 1929 by Hambone Willie Newbern.

What followed was the usual bluesmen taking the standard and adding their own twist to it, such as Robert Johnson's "If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day":

The most known and recognized version is Muddy Waters', who is also credited as a writer for the song along with Newbern. This was originally released in 1950:

And since then hundreds of artists have covered this song, such as John Lee Hooker:

And most recently Bob Dylan, which I wrote an article about here:

So you see, we refer to standards and give them our own twists... and this one happens to be one of the most covered blues songs ever.