[2] Feather described the song as having "the type of intimate instrumental setting heard in so many best blues vocal performances of the 1940s".
's stinging runs and wailing, sustained notes", according to King biographer David McGee.
[3] It also added a "vehement stop-time interlude":[5] I gave you a brand new Ford, you said 'I want a Cadillac' I bought you a ten dollar dinner, you said 'Thanks for the snack' I let you live in my penthouse, you said it was just a shack I gave you seven children, and now you want to give them back "How Blue Can You Get" reached number 97 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1964 (the magazine's R&B chart was suspended at the time).
[8][9] In 1998, King, as "Malvern Gasperone", performed the song as part of a fictional group, the Louisiana Gator Boys, for the film Blues Brothers 2000.
[10] In 1996, Primitive Radio Gods sampled the line "I've been downhearted baby, ever since the day we met" for the chorus of their single "Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand", which became a record chart hit.
[11] In a review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine commented "With its loping, unthreatening hip-hop beats and its looped B.B.