Side one of "Born Under a Bad Sign" features six short songs, which are all under three minutes long. Side two features longer, more ballad-like songs. "Personal Manager" in particular contains one of the few guitar solos on the album. Arguably the most famous song from "Born Under a Bad Sign" is the album's title track, which was written by William Bell and Booker T. Jones. Bell wanted to write a song about astrology and came up with an unconventional ten-bar guitar line (as opposed to eight-bar and twelve-bar blues) during a jam session. Music historian Rob Bowman called "Born Under a Bad Sign" "one of the most smokingly intense blues recordings of the modern era".