Chicago blues legend Junior Wells was famous for his prowess and pioneering style on the blues harp, but you wouldn’t know it from “Little By Little,” his first hit.
“Little By Little” reached #23 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1960, but there’s no harp to be found on the original recording.
Wells made up for that when he performed the song live, however, like in this terrific 1980 guest appearance with one Southside Johnny, no slouch on the harp himself.
Unfortunately, Southside takes a backseat in that performance, so we don’t get to see what he can bring to “Little By Little.”
Fortunately, though, we can hear it–because Southside covered an uptempo “Little By Little” with the Asbury Jukes as the B-side to “Havin’ a Party” in 1977, and a terrific performance it is:
As for Bruce, he only ever performed “Little By Little” three times.
I know what you’re thinking: I’m leading up to another classic Southside/Springsteen team-up, right? Not this time, because on the evenings of May 12th and 13th 1977, Southside took sick and couldn’t perform his scheduled gigs at the Monmouth Arts Center in Red Bank.
Little Steven saved the day by recruiting an All-Star Revue of Asbury Park musicians, including Bruce Springsteen, Ronnie Spector, The E Street Band, and The Asbury Jukes, so that the shows could go on as scheduled.
The Asbury Park All-Star Revue played three shows over two nights, with Bruce taking lead vocals on his own songs, and Little Steven singing lead on the rest–including this rare performance of Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes’ cover of “Little By Little” (minus Southside/plus Bruce).
Little By Little
First performed: May 12, 1977 (Red Bank, NJ)
Last performed: May 13, 1977 (Red Bank, NJ)
