Muddy Waters - She's All Right/Sad, Sad Day

7-inch vinyl

Jack White's Third Man Records is reviving some old blues classics, reissuing staples from the Chess Records catalog in partnership with Universal Records. This endeavor will be the third label-based 7" reissue series that Third Man is embarking on, following Sun Records and Tamla Records pressings.

First up is Chicago blues icon Muddy Waters, whose signature first hit on Chess "Rollin' Stone" b/w "Walkin' Blues," originally released in 1950, was reissued, along with "She's All Right" b/w "Sad, Sad Day" and "Mannish Boy" b/w "Young Fashioned Ways," released in 1953 and 1955, respectively.

Originally released as a 78rpm 10" shellac in 1953, Muddy Waters and his guitar power through no-frills folk blues A-side on "She's All Right," which would later be completely turned on its head incorporating full-on fuzzbox psychedelia on Waters' blockbuster album Electric Mud. Rhythmically, this older version's beat is an opiate, repetitive and soothing, that's gotta be played three times in a row for full effect. The B-side "Sad, Sad Day" would later be found on the London Muddy Waters Sessions dressed in draping psych, but this original version is a candid and teary-eyed lament complete with perfectly warbling guitar and harmonica interplay.

"With recordings this iconic, the Third Man Records pressings are not the first time these songs have been given new life, but we are the only label to reissue them as 7" singles, a label priority we are proud of," the label stated.