Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 28, 2024

"Cross Road Blues" is a song written by the American blues artist Robert Johnson. He sang it as a solo piece with acoustic slide guitar in the Delta blues style. The lyrics describe Johnson's grief at being unable to catch a ride at an intersection before the sun sets. Some have attached a supernatural significance to the song. One of Johnson's two recorded performances was released in 1937 as a single, heard mainly in the Mississippi Delta area. The second, which reached a wider audience, was included on King of the Delta Blues Singers, a compilation album of some of Johnson's songs released in 1961 during the American folk music revival. Elmore James recorded a version of the song in 1954, and another in either 1960 or 1961. In the late 1960s, guitarist Eric Clapton and his bandmates in the British rock group Cream (pictured) popularized it as "Crossroads". Their blues rock interpretation became one of their best-known songs, inspiring many cover versions.