The Blues Brothers: The Wildest, Most Expensive Comedy in Music History
In 1980, after a long and famously expensive production, The Blues Brothers arrived in cinemas.
The film follows Jake and Elwood Blues, played by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, as they attempt to “put the band back together” and raise enough money to save the Catholic orphanage where they were brought up by nuns.
Their explanation is simple: “We’re on a mission from God”.
Unfortunately, their holy mission involves unpaid parking tickets, driving without a licence, and causing an extraordinary amount of destruction along the way. The result is one of the wildest music films ever made.
But beneath all the car chases and comedy is something that makes The Blues Brothers particularly interesting for musicians: an absolutely ridiculous collection of Soul, Blues and R&B musicians playing great songs.
The Blues Brothers Band
The film’s soundtrack is packed with classics, including:
- She Caught The Katy
- Gimme Some Lovin’
- Rawhide
- Shake a Tailfeather
- Everybody Needs Somebody
- Think
- Minnie the Moocher
- Soul Man
- Sweet Home Chicago
- Jailhouse Rock
And then there’s the cast.
The film features musical legends including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, James Brown, Steve Cropper and Donald Duck Dunn, John Lee Hooker, Joe Walsh and Chaka Khan.
For a guitarist interested in Soul and R&B, that’s quite a lesson in itself.
The characters Jake and Elwood were inspired by the soul duo Sam & Dave, which makes perfect sense when you hear the call-and-response vocals, energetic stage performance and tightly arranged rhythm section.
And while Jake and Elwood are fictional characters, the music was anything but a joke.
From Spencer Davis to the Blues Brothers
One of the best examples of how useful the film is for guitarists is Gimme Some Lovin’. The Spencer Davis Group originally released the song in 1966, when it became an international hit.
Blues Brothers recorded their own version for the soundtrack. The interesting thing for a working guitarist is that the two versions aren’t simply interchangeable.
The Blues Brothers arrangement is in a lower key and has a somewhat simpler approach, while the lyrics and arrangement also differ. That means there are actually two arrangements worth learning.
If a song gets called on a gig, you may be expected to play the version you’ve heard a hundred times on the radio—or the version everyone knows from the film.
Learning both gives you something much more valuable than simply knowing the chords. You start to understand how the same song can be rearranged for a different singer, different band and different situation.
That’s exactly the kind of skill you need when building a working repertoire.
Think: Aretha Franklin Meets the Blues Brothers
Aretha Franklin makes one of the film’s most memorable appearances with Think.
Originally released by Aretha in 1968, the song had already established itself as one of her signature performances before the Blues Brothers came along.
In the film, however, it becomes part of the story as Mrs. Matt Murphy, played by Aretha, tries to persuade her husband to leave the Blues Brothers and stay at home.
It is a brilliant example of how the Blues Brothers used real Soul music rather than simply using songs as background decoration.
Aretha gets to perform the song with all the attitude and vocal power you would expect, while the scene itself remains completely tied to the comedy.
For guitarists, Think is also a great reminder that Soul arrangements don’t need complicated guitar parts to be effective. The important things are the rhythm, accents, dynamics and interaction with the vocal.
Get those right and the arrangement starts to come alive.
Shake a Tailfeather: The Ultimate Audience Participation Song
Ray Charles had already recorded Shake a Tailfeather, but the song became widely known to a new generation when it appeared in The Blues Brothers.
Before Ray made it his own, Ike and Tina Turner recorded a version in 1968. The song itself goes back even further, to 1963 and The Five Du-Tones.
This is exactly the sort of tune that can take on a life of its own.
It’s now a natural choice for function bands and wedding gigs because the audience doesn’t have to sit quietly and listen. They can join in.
The lyrics call out dance moves such as the boogaloo and the twist—and, of course, shaking that tail feather. That’s an important lesson for a working band: People love to participate.
A technically brilliant song isn’t necessarily the one that gets the biggest reaction. Sometimes the best repertoire choices are songs that give the audience something obvious to do. Shake a Tailfeather does exactly that.
Soul Man: From Sam & Dave to Jake & Elwood
Soul Man was first made famous by Sam & Dave in 1967. Written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter and backed by Booker T. & the M.G.’s, it was already an established Soul classic long before Jake and Elwood arrived.
Then The Blues Brothers brought it back to a huge new audience in 1980. There’s a nice bit of musical symmetry here.
The Blues Brothers were famously modelled on Sam & Dave, so choosing Soul Man was almost inevitable.
And much of the musical world surrounding the original song was represented in the film’s band as well, giving the Blues Brothers version a direct connection to the classic Memphis Soul sound.
Sam & Dave were known for their intense stage chemistry, despite their famously difficult relationship away from the stage.
Jake and Elwood, thankfully, got along rather better. They were brothers—at least in the fictional world of the film—and they were on a mission. A mission from God.
Jailhouse Rock: Bringing Elvis Into the Mix
The Blues Brothers didn’t stop with soul and R&B. They also turned to rock ’n’ roll with Jailhouse Rock.
Originally made famous by Elvis Presley, it’s a reminder that the Blues Brothers’ musical world was always broader than the name suggests.
The film’s version gives the song a natural place alongside the Soul classics because, at its heart, this is the same musical tradition: strong rhythm, memorable riffs, a great vocal and an arrangement designed to get a crowd moving.
For a guitarist, Jailhouse Rock is another useful repertoire tune because it connects the dots between early rock ’n’ roll and the R&B material that dominates the rest of the soundtrack.
And that’s one of the great things about studying the Blues Brothers. You don’t just learn their version. You start discovering where the music came from.
A Working Band’s Dream Repertoire
What makes The Blues Brothers so useful for guitarists isn’t simply the quality of the songs. It’s the arrangements. These are tunes designed to work with a singer, rhythm section, horns and an audience.
That means the guitar often isn’t there to fill every available space. It has to lock into the rhythm section, support the vocal, hit the right accents and know when to get out of the way. That’s a much more useful lesson than simply learning a collection of chord shapes.
Listen to the bass. Listen to the drums. Listen to the horns. Then work out what the guitar is contributing to the overall arrangement.
That’s how you start sounding like a band rather than someone playing chords behind a singer, waiting for your turn to solo.
The Blues Brothers Legacy
The Blues Brothers became a cult classic and helped introduce a huge audience to Soul and Blues music through comedy, spectacular performances and an unforgettable soundtrack.
It also created a repertoire that musicians continue to perform decades later. That’s why you’ll still find Blues Brothers tribute bands playing the tunes today, even touring theatres!
And for guitarists, the film is almost a musical history lesson.
You can trace songs back to artists such as Ray Charles, Sam & Dave, James Brown and Booker T. & the M.G.’s, then compare those recordings with the Blues Brothers arrangements.
You don’t have to choose one version and forget the others. Learn the original. Learn the Blues Brothers version, and work out what changed. That’s where the real guitar lesson begins.
The Blues Brothers and Building Your Repertoire
The Blues Brothers is essential viewing for any musician, rivalled in my mind only by The Commitments for its combination of great music, great characters and musicians.
But you don’t need to become a Blues Brothers tribute band to benefit from it. Take the songs that work for your situation.
Gimme Some Lovin’ can teach you how to adapt a famous arrangement. Think shows how much attitude and energy can come from the relationship between a singer and rhythm section.
Shake a Tailfeather demonstrates the power of audience participation. Soul Man shows how a great song can be reinvented while retaining its original identity. And Jailhouse Rock connects the Blues Brothers’ soul and R&B repertoire to the rock ’n’ roll tradition.
That’s what building a repertoire is really about. Don’t just learn songs. Learn the arrangements, the styles and the musical history behind them—and you’ll have far more to draw on when the next gig comes around.
The Blues Brothers Tunes | Related Pages
Gimme Some Lovin’ | Chords + TAB
You can learn Gimme Some Lovin’ by The Spencer Davis Group + Blues Brothers using chords, lyrics, a chord chart, TAB, and backing tracks.
| G | Bb | C | Eb |
So glad we made it. So glad we made it. You’ve got to…
Jailhouse Rock | Chords + TAB
You can learn how to play Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, TAB, and backing tracks.
| E | E Eb |
The warden threw a party in the county jail…
Shake A Tail Feather | Chords + TAB
You can learn how to play Shake A Tail Feather by the Blues Brothers using chords, lyrics, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| D5 (D6) | G (G6) |
Well, I heard about the fellow you’ve been dancin’ with…
Check out the full TAB lesson here: Shake A Tail Feather (Ray Charles) Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Soul Man | Chords + TAB
You can learn how to play Soul Man by the Blues Brothers using chords, lyrics, a chord chart, a backing track, and Spytunes video guitar lessons.
| G G7 G | G G7 G |
Coming to you, on a dusty road…
Start learning with the full lesson series: Soul Man – Guitar Lessons with TAB.
Think | Chords + TAB
Learn how to play Think by the Blues Brothers using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recordings.
| Bb | Eb Bb |
You better think (think). Think about what you’re trying to do to me…
Check out the full TAB lesson here: Think (Aretha Franklin) Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Blues Brothers on the web
