“Honky Tonk Train Blues” by Meade Lux Lewis

Meade Lux Lewis wrote "Honky Tonk Train Blues" and first put it on record in 1927, and plenty of what rock and roll would later claim as its own is already rattling around inside it. It's proto boogie-woogie, barreling down the line like a freight with no brakes, and the first song on record to use the term "honky-tonk".

It sold poorly, and Lewis ended up working at a car wash until John Hammond heard the record, tracked him down and paid him to cut it again, first for release in Europe. A 1937 recording finally gave him an American hit, and the concert tours that followed helped carry boogie-woogie across the country. The song entered the Blues Hall of Fame in 2026 and resurfaced on the 1996 compilation Full Spectrum Blues, Rural Blues.

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