Ida Red

The earliest recording is by Fiddlin’ Powers and Family, made on 19 August 1924 and issued by Victor that December on Victor 19434, with vocals. The group was Cowan Powers on fiddle with his children Charles, Orpha, Carrie and Ada, of Scott County in southwest Virginia, and has been called the first family string band to make a commercial record. An instrumental version by Dykes’ Magic City Trio followed on Brunswick in 1927.

Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys recorded it in Dallas on 29 November 1938 for Vocalion (05079), in the upbeat version that made the song famous. Chuck Berry adapted parts of Wills’s version for “Maybellene” (1955): he took a recording of the song, renamed “Ida May,” to Chess Records, where Leonard Chess thought the titles “Ida Red” and “Ida May” too rural, and the song became the car-race number released as Berry’s first hit.