“Blue On Black” by Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band

"Blue On Black" sits on Trouble Is..., the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band's second album from 1997, and when it went out as a single in 1998 it climbed all the way to the top of Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks and finished the year as that chart's biggest song. Shepherd wrote it with Mark Selby and Tia Sillers, Jerry Harrison produced, and Tom Lord-Alge mixed.

The guest list does a lot of the talking: Tommy Shannon on bass, Chris Layton on drums, Reese Wynans on keys and James Cotton blowing harmonica. It's a slow-burning, brooding thing that smolders rather than shows off, and it took the Billboard Music Award for Rock Track of the Year. In 2019 Shepherd reworked it with Five Finger Death Punch, Brantley Gilbert and Brian May, sending the proceeds to the Gary Sinise Foundation for first responders.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.