Ellas Otha Bates McDaniel, better known as Bo Diddley, was born in McComb, Mississippi in 1928, and moved to Chicago in the mid-’30s, where he eventually would shock the music world in 1955 with his 2-sided hit ‘Bo Diddley’/’I’m A Man’ on Chess Records. The distinctive syncopated rhythm of his self-titled song captured the primal spirit of restless youth of those times. He followed that success up the next year with ‘Who Do You Love,’ solidifying his place in history as the originator of what has since become known around the world as the ‘Bo Diddley Beat.’ Other Diddley classics include ‘Pretty Thing,’ ‘Mona,’ and ‘You Can’t Judge A Book By The Cover.’
— (Blues Foundation press release, 2004.)