"Crosscut Saw", or "Cross Cut Saw Blues" as it was first called, is a hokum-style song "that must have belonged to the general repertoire of the Delta blues". Mississippi bluesman Tommy McClennan's recording of the song was released in 1941 and has since been interpreted by many blues artists. "Crosscut Saw" became an early R&B chart hit for Albert King, "who made it one of the necessary pieces of modern blues". Original song Tommy McClennan's "Cross Cut Saw Blues" is a Delta blues, that follows the hokum style of the time. McClennan, who sings and plays acoustic guitar, and an unknown bass player, recorded the song at the RCA Studio A in Chicago on September 15, 1941. The lyrics make use of double-entendre: The song follows the classic twelve-bar blues progression, contrary to Big Bill Broonzy's characterization of McClennan's timing as erratic. Tony Hollins version Tony Hollins, a Mississippi bluesman and contemporary of Tommy McClennan, recorded a version of "Cross Cut Saw Blues" with similar lyrics on June 3, 1941, three months before McClennan. The song was not released at the time, but eventually appeared in 1992. In an interview, John Lee Hooker, who knew Tony Hollins, was asked "Well, did Tony Hollins or Tommy McClennan do it first? They both recorded it around the same time". Hooker responded "I think Tommy McClennan did it first". In David "Honeyboy" Edwards' autobiography, The World Don't Owe Me Nothing, Edwards mentioned that he played with both Richard "Hacksaw" Harney and McClennan, and that McClennan got the song "Crosscut Saw" from Harney. In the earlier days of the blues, it was not unusual for an unrecorded or unpublished song to be in the repertoire of several blues singers. In the folk music tradition, such songs were passed around and developed over an extended period of time without regards to ownership. Albert King version In 1966, Albert King recorded his version calling it "Crosscut Saw". The same lyrics as McClennan's "Cross Cut Saw Blues" were used, except for two verses which were replaced by guitar solos. However, King uses a different arrangement based on an Afro-Cuban rhythm pattern, similar to that of his 1962 song "I Get Evil". Music educator and writer James E. Perone describes the song as having one of the better examples of King's well-known string bending technique: On November 2, 1966, King recorded the song at the Stax Records studio