Background, Recording, and Composition
Vaughan and Double Trouble had performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in July 1982, which caught the attention of musician Jackson Browne. He offered the band free use of his personal recording studio in Downtown Los Angeles. During Thanksgiving weekend, they accepted Browne's offer and recorded a demo. It was heard by John H. Hammond, a talent scout who had discovered artists such as Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen among many others. He presented the demo to Greg Geller, head of A&R at Epic Records, and arranged a recording contract. As a result, the demo was mixed and Epic released Texas Flood in June 1983. "Love Struck Baby" was recorded on November 24, 1982. The song was engineered and co-produced by Richard Mullen. In early 1983, Vaughan's vocals were recorded at Riverside Sound in Austin, Texas.
"Love Struck Baby" is 2 minutes 19 seconds long and cited as a blues rock song on the sheet music published on Musicnotes.com by Alfred Music Publishing, composed in the key of A♭. It consists of a twelve-bar blues chord progression which is repeated for the first verse and guitar solos; the second, third, and fourth verses are played with a D♭–A♭–D♭–E♭ progression, while the choruses are played with a A♭–D♭–A♭–E♭ progression. The lyrics were written about the night that Vaughan and his then-wife, Lenny, moved in together. The song was performed in common time, with a moderately fast tempo of 170 beats per minute. A train-style drum beat played by Chris Layton carries through the track, over which Vaughan plays a driving rhythm guitar figure similar to Chuck Berry. He combines the influences of Berry and T-Bone Walker in the guitar solos.
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