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"Cross Road Blues" is one of Delta Blues singer Robert Johnson's most famous songs, released on a 78 rpm record in 1937 by Vocalion Records, catalogue 3519. The original version remained out of print after its initial release until the appearance of The Complete Recordings in 1990. In 1961, producer Frank Driggs  substituted the previously unreleased alternate take on the first reissue of Johnson's work, the long-playing album King of the Delta Blues Singers. Because of the historical significance of "Cross Road Blues," it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.

The lyrics of the song plainly have the narrator attempting to hitch a ride from an intersection as darkness falls. But in close association with the mythic legend of Johnson's short life and death, it has come to represent the tale of a blues man going to a metaphorical crossroads to meet the devil to sell his soul in exchange for becoming a famous blues player.