Rock Me Baby is a blues standard that helped popularize the genre and has become one of the most recorded blues tunes. It originated as Lil’ Son Jackson’s 1951 song Rockin’ and Rollin’, itself inspired by earlier blues. The best known versions were by Muddy Waters and B.B. King. B.B. King’s recording was released in May 1964 as a single from the album Rock Me Baby, and it is a medium-tempo twelve-bar blues in the key of C with prominent guitar fills and piano. The track is credited to B.B. King and Joe Josea and was released on Kent Records after King moved to ABC-Paramount. It reached the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, becoming King’s first single to do so. In 2022, King’s version was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in the Classics of Blues Recording - Singles category. Muddy Waters also recorded a version titled Rock Me in 1956, drawing on the same Lil’ Son Jackson tune. The song has inspired many artists and remains a staple of the blues repertoire.
