Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

Good Morning School Girl was recorded at Sonny Boy Williamson’s first session for Bluebird on May 5^th 1937 at the Leland Hotel in Aurora and on the record he’s accompanied by Big Joe Williams and Robert Lee McCoy on guitars. Confusion surrounding the title of this song, which usually inserts ‘Little’ after ‘Good Morning’, has been compounded by later recorded versions that have credited Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) as its composer.

It has become a staple for both Chicago Bluesmen and British Blues bands in the 1950s and 1960s; it has even been called “the first rock and roll record”, but then again so have many others. Whatever the case it was another that was around during the gestation period.

John Lee Williamson was from Tennessee and Sonny Boy, was what his grandmother nicknamed him. He hoboed with Sleepy John Estes and Hank Rachel during the late 1920s and as the depression deepened he travelled with Robert Lee McCoy and Big Joe Williams, developing his skills to the point where he was the pre-eminent pre war harp player. Sonny Boy recorded around 90 sides between 1937 and 1942, making him one of the busiest and most successful Bluesmen of the period. In 1948, while still working and recording Sonny Boy was mugged and murdered on his way home from Chicago’s Plantation Club.

A song with the same name actually made the British charts, recorded by the Yardbirds in October 1964. Their version has lyrical similarities to the original but it is in fact melodically different and credited to H.G. Demarias. This was the original line-up of the Yardbirds, featuring Eric Clapton on lead guitar. Rod Stewart recorded the song as the A-side of his first ever Decca single; Rod’s version is a cover of Sonny Boy.