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'Down The Road A Piece' is a song written in 1940 by Don Raye, which was written as a boogie woogie number for Will Bradley's big band, who recorded it in August and gained a top 10 hit with it in the closing months of the year. The song would go on to be one of the classic standards of rock and roll, recorded by Amos Milburn, Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stones, Foghat, Bruce Springsteen, Manfred Mann, Jerry Lee Lewis, and dozens of others.
In the original version of the song, as recorded in 1940 by the Will Bradley Orchestra, the big band was pared down to a trio of drums, bass, and piano, and the three musicians are mentioned in the lyrics.

The drummer man's a guy they call Eight Beat Mack.

And you remember Doc and ol' "Beat Me Daddy" Slack.

"Eight Beat Mack" refers to drummer Ray McKinley, "Doc" refers to the bass player, Doc Goldberg, and "Beat Me Daddy Slack" refers to Freddie Slack, the pianist, who had risen to stardom as the pianist in "Beat Me Daddy, Eight To The Bar" with this same band earlier the same year. Vocals on the recording were provided by McKinley and Don Raye, author of the song. Raye provided introductory banter with McKinley, who sang the song itself.
The original lyrics were sung by Jimmy Dorsey in 1941, Glenn Miller in 1942, and Harry Gibson in 1945, but later versions of the song had the lines about the musicians removed. Amos Milburn, who recorded the song in 1947, included the reference to Eight Beat Mack, but changed the next line to "You remember me in beat me daddy's shack" removing the references to the other two. Chuck Berry, who recorded the song in the 50's, changed the lyrics even further, removing Eight Beat Mack and replacing him with Willy McCoy, and re-wrote much of the song, which version was copied by many later musicians. Modern musicians, though, more often than not use the original lyrics.
Lyrics as written by Don Raye in 1940:

If you like to boogie woogie, I know the place.

It's just an old piano and a knocked-out bass.

The drummer man's a guy they call Eight Beat Mack.

And you remember Doc and ol' "Beat Me Daddy" Slack.

It's better than chicken fried in bacon grease

Come along with me boys, it's just down the road a piece



Well there's a place you really get your kicks

It's open every night from about 12 to 6

If you like the boogie woogie, then you'll get your fill

They throw the 8-beats at you like an old steam drill

Come along with me boys, before they lose their lease

It's just down the road, down the road a piece.

Lyrics as re-written by Chuck Berry:

Now if you want to hear some boogie like I'm going to play

It's just an old piano and a knockout bass

The drummer man's a cat they call Charlie McCoy

You all remember that rubber legged boy?

Mama cooking chicken fried in bacon grease

Come on along, boys, it's just down the road apiece



Well there's a place you really get your kicks

It's open every night about 12 to 6

Now if you want to hear some boogie, you can get your fill

And shove and sting it like a old steam grill

Come on along, you can lose your lead

Down the road, down the road, down the road apiece

Partial list of musicians who have recorded the song:
Will Bradley Orchestra with Ray McKinley

Glenn Miller Orchestra

Ray McKinley Orchestra

Freddie Slack Orchestra

Jimmy Dorsey

Harry Gibson

Amos Milburn

Chuck Berry

Jerry Lee Lewis

The Rolling Stones

Manfred Mann

Foghat

Bruce Springsteen

Chuck E Weiss

Big Joe Duskin

Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five

Mr. B

Arthur Migliazza

Bob Baker

Merrill Moore

The Count Bishops

The Crawdaddys

Bob Hall & Dave Peabody

Steve Gibbons Band

Mike Wilhelm

Little Feat

Willie Dixon