Origins launch number 7 (NROL-7) mission patch The genesis of the Blues Brothers was a January 17, 1976,
Saturday Night Live sketch. In it, "
Howard Shore and his All-Bee Band" play the
Slim Harpo song "
I'm a King Bee", with Belushi singing and Aykroyd playing
harmonica, dressed in the bee costumes they wore for "
The Killer Bees" sketches. In 1978, guitarist
Arlen Roth was performing on
SNL with
Art Garfunkel, who was that week's host of the show. Before the actual live show, Belushi and Aykroyd asked Roth and others to join them onstage in the outfits that would later become the Blues Brothers' look. Roth taught Belushi the lyrics to "
Rocket 88" so they could perform it that night. This was also discussed on Aykroyd's "Elwood's Bluesmobile" radio show, when Roth was interviewed about his Slide Guitar Summit album, and the song "Rocket 88". Following tapings of
SNL, it was popular among cast members and the weekly hosts to attend Aykroyd's Holland Tunnel Blues bar, which he had rented not long after joining the cast. Aykroyd and Belushi filled a jukebox with songs from
Sam & Dave, punk band
the Viletones and others. Belushi bought an amplifier and they kept some musical instruments there for anyone who wanted to jam. It was at the bar that Aykroyd and Ron Gwynne wrote and developed the story which Aykroyd turned into the draft screenplay for the
Blues Brothers movie, better known as the "tome", because it contained so many pages. It was also at the bar that Aykroyd introduced Belushi to the
blues. An interest soon became a fascination, and it was not long before the two began singing with local blues bands. Jokingly,
SNL band leader Howard Shore suggested they call themselves "The Blues Brothers". In an April 1988, interview he gave to the
Chicago Sun-Times, Aykroyd said the Blues Brothers act borrowed from Sam and Dave and others; the
Sun-Times quoted him as explaining: "Well, obviously, the duo thing and the dancing, but the hats came from
John Lee Hooker. The suits came from the concept that when you were a jazz player in the '40s, '50s '60s, to look straight, you had to wear a suit." The band was modeled in part on Aykroyd's experience with the
Downchild Blues Band, one of the first professional blues bands in Canada, with whom Aykroyd played on occasion. Aykroyd encountered the band in the early 1970s, around the time of his attendance at
Carleton University in
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and where his interest in the blues developed through attending and occasionally performing at Ottawa's
Le Hibou Coffee House. As Aykroyd described it: The
Toronto-based Downchild Blues Band, co-founded in 1969 by two brothers, Donnie and
Richard "Hock" Walsh, served as an inspiration for the two Blues Brothers characters. Aykroyd modeled
Elwood Blues in part on Donnie Walsh, a harmonica player and guitarist, while Belushi's
Jake Blues character was modeled after Hock Walsh, Downchild's lead singer, and
Curtis Salgado. In their first album,
Briefcase Full of Blues (1978), Aykroyd and Belushi featured three well-known Downchild songs closely associated with Hock Walsh's vocal style: "I've Got Everything I Need (Almost)", written by Donnie Walsh, "Shotgun Blues", co-written by Donnie and Hock Walsh, and "Flip, Flop and Fly", co-written and originally popularized by
Big Joe Turner. All three songs were on Downchild's second album,
Straight Up (1973), with "Flip, Flop and Fly" becoming the band's most successful single, in 1974. Belushi's budding interest in the blues solidified in October 1977 when he was in
Eugene, Oregon, filming ''
National Lampoon's Animal House''. He went to a local hotel to hear 25-year-old blues singer/harmonica player
Curtis Salgado. After the show, Belushi and Salgado talked about the blues for hours. Belushi found Salgado's enthusiasm infectious. In an interview at the time with the
Eugene Register-Guard, he said: In an interview with
Crawdaddy he added: Salgado lent him some albums by
Floyd Dixon,
Charles Brown,
Johnny "Guitar" Watson, and others. Belushi was hooked. In July 2024, John Belushi's
Facebook page revealed that Belushi's wife Judith had a prominent role in the development of the Blues Brothers, stating that "Her unwavering dedication and creative genius alongside Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi gave birth to ‘The Blues Brothers." Belushi began to join Salgado on stage, singing the
Floyd Dixon song "
Hey Bartender" on a few occasions, and using Salgado's humorous alternate lyrics to "
I Don't Know": These lyrics were used in the band's debut performance on
SNL.
Band formation With the help of pianist-arranger
Paul Shaffer, Belushi and Aykroyd started assembling a collection of studio talents to form their own band. The band, along with the
New Riders of the Purple Sage, opened for the
Grateful Dead for the final show at
Winterland, New Year's Eve 1978. With the film came the
soundtrack album, which was the band's first studio album. "
Gimme Some Lovin' was a Top 40 hit and the band toured to promote the film. The tour began on June 27, 1980 at
Poplar Creek Music Theater. The tour also led to a third album (and second live album),
Made in America, recorded at the Universal Amphitheatre in 1980. The track "Who's Making Love" peaked at No 39. It was the last recording the band would make with Belushi's Jake Blues. Belushi's wife, Judith Jacklin, and his friend,
Tino Insana, wrote a book,
Blues Brothers: Private, that further fleshed out the Blues Brothers' universe and gave a back story for the first movie. In 1981,
Best of the Blues Brothers was released, with a previously unreleased track, a version of
The Soul Survivors' "
Expressway to Your Heart", and alternate live recordings of "
Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" and "Rubber Biscuit"; this album would be the first of several compilations and hits collections issued over the years. A 1998 British CD compilation,
The Complete Blues Brothers, exclusively featured
The Lamont Cranston Band's "Excuse Moi Mon Cheri", from the L.A.
Briefcase recordings, originally available only as the
b-side to the "Soul Man" 45 rpm single. On March 5, 1982, Belushi died in
Hollywood of an accidental overdose of
heroin and cocaine. After Belushi's death, updated versions of the Blues Brothers have performed on
SNL and for charitable and political causes. Aykroyd has been accompanied by
Jim Belushi and
John Goodman in character as "Zee" Blues and "Mighty Mack" McTeer. The copyright owners have also authorized some copycat acts to perform under the Blues Brothers name; one such act performs regularly at the
Universal Studios Florida theme park in
Orlando, Florida and
Universal Studios Hollywood. In 1995, the Band collaborated with the Italian singer
Zucchero Fornaciari, who had been invited to the event in memory of John Belushi's 46th birthday. After a concert together, they registered the videoclip of the Zucchero song "Per colpa di chi?" at the House of Blues. In 1997, an animated sitcom with Jake and Elwood was planned, but scrapped after only eight episodes were produced.
Peter Aykroyd and
Jim Belushi replaced their brothers as the voices of Elwood and Jake. To promote
Blues Brothers 2000 (1998), Dan Aykroyd, Jim Belushi and John Goodman performed at the
Super Bowl XXXI halftime show, along with
ZZ Top and
James Brown. The performance was preceded with a faux news report stating the Blues Brothers had escaped custody and were on their way to the
Louisiana Superdome. Aykroyd has continued to be an active proponent of blues music and parlayed this avocation into foundation and partial ownership of the
House of Blues franchise, a national chain of nightclubs. In Italy the franchise is now owned by Zucchero, who used the brand during the tour promoting his album
Black Cat of 2016. Jim Belushi toured with the band for a short time as "Zee Blues", and recorded the album ''
Blues Brothers and Friends: Live from Chicago's House of Blues with Dan Aykroyd. Jim would later reunite with Aykroyd to record yet another album, not as the Blues Brothers but as themselves: Belushi/Aykroyd – Have Love Will Travel'' (Big Men-Big Music). In 2004, the showband revue
The Blues Brothers Revival premiered in Chicago. The story was about Elwood trying to rescue Jake from an eternity in
limbo/
purgatory. The revue was written and composed with approval and permission from both the John Belushi estate (including his widow, Judith Belushi-Pisano) and Dan Aykroyd. The Blues Brothers featuring Elwood and Zee regularly perform at House of Blues venues and various casinos across North America. They are usually backed by Jim Belushi's Sacred Hearts Band. The Original Blues Brothers Band tours the world regularly. The only original members still in the band are
Steve Cropper and
Lou Marini. The lead singers are Bobby "Sweet Soul" Harden, Rob "The Honeydripper" Papparozi and Tommy "Pipes" McDonnel. They are occasionally joined by
Eddie Floyd. Aykroyd most recently hosted a radio show as his character Elwood Blues on the weekly
House of Blues Radio Hour, heard nationwide on the
Dial Global Radio Network until 2017. It has now been succeeded by
The Sam T. Blues Revue, which airs Wednesday nights on
KHBT. In 2025, a new Blues Brothers live album titled
The Lost Recordings was released with
Z2 Comics. The recording was found on a tape hidden in Belushi's old briefcase and was released alongside an official graphic novel, written by
Stella Aykroyd and
Luke Pisano. ==Films==