"The Memphis Blues" is a song described by its composer, W. C. Handy, as a "southern rag".

Subtitled "Mr. Crump", "The Memphis Blues" is said to be based on a campaign song written by Handy for Edward Crump, a mayoral candidate in Memphis, Tennessee.

He immediately sold it to the music publisher Theron Bennett, who took it to New York to attempt to promote it.

Bennett hired a professional songwriter, George A. Norton, to write lyrics for it, and Evans had his director, Edward V. Cupero, arrange it for his band.

[14][15] In 2019, this version was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress.