Author Richmond Dutton

Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup was an American Delta bluesman , a  singer, songwriter and guitarist. I first encountered his name in the late 1960s , but the number I heard was not his version , but a cover of his most famous composition “That’s All Right” BY Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield . But that version in turn was a much earlier hit for another well known artist .. Elvis Presley . Sadly  his music is best known, outside blues circles, for three of his compositions because they were later recorded by Elvis Presley . Elvis also had hits with  “My Baby Left Me” and “So Glad You’re Mine”. Unfortunately Arthur ‘Bigboy’ was never to enjoy the well deserved financial rewards his music should have brought him . In fact shortly before his death in 1974 , he is reputed to have said :  “I was born poor, I live poor, and I am going to die poor.”

He was born on August 24, 1905, in Mississippi where by the early 1920s he learned to sing in gospel choirs as well as having lessons from Papa Harvey a local blues artist . He began to perform the blues in dance halls around his home town and eventually joined a group known as the . 

Harmonizing Four, with whom he visited Chicago in 1939. He remained in Chicago trying unsuccesfully to earn a living as a street singer. According to the legend he was found by record producer Lester Melrose living in a wooden packing crate and signed him up to a recording contract with RCA .

In the 1940s he was recording for RCA , and with Ace Records, Checker Records and Trumpet Records in the early 1950s. Because of prevailing laws and attitudes he mainly toured black clubs in the South where songs of his such as “Mean Old ‘Frisco Blues”, “Who’s Been Foolin’ You” and “That’s All Right” were popular .These and other songs of his such as “Rock Me Mama”, “So Glad You’re Mine”, and “My Baby Left Me” have been covered by many artists, including Elvis Presley, Slade, Elton John and Rod Stewart. 

Because of disputes over royalties Crudup stopped recording in the 1950s famously stating later “I realised I was making everybody rich, and here I was poor”. He didnt start recording again until 1965 yet still made little or no money often working as a labourer to make ends meet as he was still not receiving royalties . 

In 1968, the blues promoter Dick Waterman began fighting on behalf of Crudup for his royalties , the due figure being estimated at  $60,000. However this came to nothing . Further attempts were made in the early 1970s and by 1971, he had collected over $10,000 in overdue royalties through the intervention of the  American Guild Of Authors And Composers).

In 1970 he came to the UK & recorded “Roebuck Man”. 

Sadly Crudup died due to heart disease and diabetes in hospital in Virginia, on March 28, 1974.

Crudup has been honored with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail, placed at Forest. Elvis Presley acknowledged Crudup’s importance to rock and roll when he said, “If I had any ambition, it was to be as good as Arthur Crudup”.

The Blues Hall of Fame stated that Crudup “became known as ‘The Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ after Elvis Presley recorded three of his songs” but adds that “Crudup was a classic victim of music industry exploitation, and despite the commercial success of his music, was never able to even support his family from his music”.