We may have lost the Mercury brand in 2010, but we’ve still got “Mercury Blues,” here performed by the Steve Miller Band. 

“Mercury Blues” is a bona fide blues classic. Written by K.C. Douglas and Bob Geddins back in 1949, it was originally titled “Mercury Boogie.” Douglas scored his own hit with the tune, and then Steve Miller introduced it to a whole new generation of listeners on his quadruple platinum 1976 album, Fly Like an Eagle. 

Since then, “Mercury” has been covered by David Lindley, Meat Loaf, Finnish rock idol Pave Maijanen, Dwight Yoakum, Jackson Browne—and of course Alan Jackson, whose country pop version was a huge smash in 1993.

However, we’re partial to Miller’s approach to the song, especially when it includes his longtime collaborator and bandmate Norton Buffalo on harmonica. The performance below was captured live in 2008 for the concert DVD Steve Miller Band — Live in Chicago. Tragically, Buffalo (real name Philip Jackson) was taken by cancer only one year later. Check out his incredible harp work.