Examples of songs that use the sixteen-bar blues include “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man” by Muddy Waters, “Oh, Pretty Woman” by Albert King, “Watermelon Man” by Herbie Hancock, “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad,” “Sleepy Time Time” by Cream and “Let’s Dance” by Chris Montez. A sixteen-bar blues is a blues progression with sixteen bars to the verse. Most are made by stretching the standard twelve-bar blues, either by doubling one of its sections or by repeating one of its chord changes.
The form is also common in ragtime. Because there are several ways to add the extra four bars, the examples below are grouped by which part of the twelve-bar pattern they stretch.
1. “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man” (Muddy Waters)
Written by Willie Dixon and first performed by Muddy Waters, this is an example of the first method. The opening four bars of tonic chord in a twelve-bar blues are doubled, so the I chord fills the whole first half, bars 1 to 8, before the song moves on.
2. “Close to You” (Muddy Waters)
This Willie Dixon song, also first performed by Muddy Waters, uses the same doubled opening section as “Hoochie Coochie Man.”
3. “Oh, Pretty Woman” (Albert King)
This blues, written by A.C. Williams and first recorded by Albert King, uses the doubled-opening sixteen-bar verse too. Its instrumental sections, though, are twelve bars, so you can hear both forms in one song.
4. “Trigger Happy” (“Weird Al” Yankovic)
Here the extra bars go at the end instead. The last dominant, subdominant and tonic chords of the twelve-bar pattern are doubled in length, so the tonic fills bars 13 to 16, with extra ornamentation and a turnaround.
5. “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad”
Also known as “Lonesome Road Blues,” this song repeats the middle section of the twelve-bar form, the IV chord for two bars and the I chord for two bars, usually with its words and melody. Most renditions follow this pattern, including those by Henry Whitter, the Blue Ridge Duo (George Reneau and Gene Austin) and Woody Guthrie.
6. “Sleepy Time Time” (Cream)
Cream’s song uses the same repeated middle section.
7. “Watermelon Man” (Herbie Hancock)
Herbie Hancock’s tune takes a different route: the move from the V chord to the IV chord (bars 9 and 10 of a twelve-bar blues) is repeated twice, which adds the four extra bars.
8. “Let’s Dance” (Chris Montez)
Written by Jim Lee and first performed by Chris Montez, “Let’s Dance” repeats the V-to-IV move once and doubles the last tonic bars. The Ramones are among the bands that covered it.
9. “Nine Pound Hammer”
An eight-bar blues can also be counted as a sixteen-bar blues if each chord symbol is taken as a half note in 2/2 or 4/4 time. “Nine Pound Hammer” is one example.
10. “Sweet Sixteen Bars” (Ray Charles)
Ray Charles’ original instrumental is the other example of this reading, and its title names the form.
Variations at a Glance
- Doubled opening: I chord for eight bars (“I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man,” “Close to You,” “Oh, Pretty Woman”).
- Doubled ending: V, IV and I each held twice as long (“Trigger Happy”).
- Repeated middle: the IV–I section played twice (“Going Down the Road Feeling Bad,” “Sleepy Time Time”).
- Repeated V–IV move: twice (“Watermelon Man”) or once with a longer ending (“Let’s Dance”).
- Counted from an eight-bar blues: “Nine Pound Hammer” and “Sweet Sixteen Bars.”
Final Thoughts
Play “Hoochie Coochie Man” next to any twelve-bar blues and the doubled opening is easy to hear. For the shorter and standard forms, see these songs with twelve-bar blues and these songs with the I–IV–V progression, and for the blues feel, these songs with shuffle rhythm.
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