Songfacts®:

• This is a rollicking ode to the 12 bar blues chord progression, composed in, you guessed it, 12 bar blues! It was written by the Canadian musician, Jack Butwell, and originally appeared on his album, I Love Florida. NRBQ keyboardist, Terry Adams, told Shirley Haun: "'12 Bar Blues' was written by a guy named Jack Butwell, who was in Florida. When I first heard it, it was more than the light switch going on in my head. It was instant. When I heard the original, which doesn't sound anything like my arrangement, I knew, this is going to be a big song for us, that we could really get something out of this." Adams said Butwell passed away before he got to hear NRBQ's take on his song: "I didn't tell him that we were recording '12 Bar Blues' because I wanted it to be a surprise. Sadly, he died before the release of Grooves In Orbit."
• NRBQ's manager, Albert Grossman - who also managed Bob Dylan between 1962 and 1969 - did not like this song and wanted it removed from Grooves in Orbit. When NRBQ refused to drop the song, Grossman prohibited the release of any further recordings by the band. Locked in their contract, NRBQ were consequently unable to release any new material until Grossman died three years later. But Grossman was not the only one who disliked "12 Bar Blues." Adams told Shirley Haun that NRBQ singer and guitarist, Al Anderson, wasn't particularly keen on the song either: "I got resistance from the record label about it, you know. I don't even think Al was crazy about singing it. I had to kind of twist his arm to get him to sing it at first."