Arthur Crudup

Arthur Crudup was born in Forest, Mississippi in 1905. By the early 1930s he was playing local juke joints, and in 1946 he signed with RCA Victor. That same year he recorded "That's All Right," a song that would later become famous when Elvis Presley covered it. Crudup's version is often cited as one of the early recordings that pointed toward what became rock and roll.

He had another significant hit in 1956 with "Behind Closed Doors," which reached number four on the Billboard R&B chart. Other songs like "My Baby Left Me" and "Mean Old Frisco" show his straightforward, driving style. His music was built on raw vocals and a simple, propulsive guitar sound.

Crudup's songs were covered by many later artists including Elvis Presley, Cream, and The Rolling Stones. Eric Clapton once called him "the real king of the blues." He died in 1974. While the existing history makes some grand claims about his influence, the basic facts are that he wrote and recorded several songs in the 1940s and 1950s that became important source material for rock musicians who followed.