Canned Heat - On the Road Again ( S1.3 )

Releases and charts

"On the Road Again" is included on Canned Heat's second album, Boogie with Canned Heat, released January 21, 1968, by Liberty Records. After receiving strong response from airplay on American "underground" FM radio, Liberty issued the song as a single on April 24, 1968. To make the song more Top-40 AM radio-friendly, Liberty edited it from the original length of 4:55 to a 3:33 single version. It became Canned Heat's first single to appear in the record charts.

Chart (1968–1969)	Peak position
Australia Go-Set Top 40	9
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)	5
Canada RPM Top Singles	8
France (SNEP)	7
Ireland (Irish Singles Chart)	14
Italy (FIMI)	23
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)	5
Netherlands (Single Top 100)	3
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)	3
U.K. (Official Singles Chart)	8
U.S. (Billboard Hot 100)	16
West Germany (Official German Charts)	13

On the singles, Floyd Jones and Alan Wilson are listed as the composers, while the album credits Jim Oden/James Burke Oden (also known as St. Louis Jimmy Oden) "On the Road Again" appears on several Canned Heat compilation albums, including Let's Work Together: The Best of Canned Heat (1989) and Uncanned! The Best of Canned Heat (1994). Also, it is featured on the soundtrack to Wim Wenders 1974 film Alice in the Cities.

Influence

Although songs inspired by John Lee Hooker's "Detroit-era boogie" had been recorded over the years by a variety of blues musicians, Canned Heat's "On the Road Again" popularized the guitar-boogie or E/G/A riff in the rock world. As a result, "it's been a standard rock and roll pattern ever since". Canned Heat used it frequently as the starting point for several of their extended jam songs, including the 40 minute live opus "Refried Boogie (Part I & II)" from their late 1968 Living the Blues album. When Hooker recorded an updated version of "Boogie Chillen'", titled "Boogie Chillen No. 2", with the group in 1970 for Hooker 'n Heat, it had come full circle.