Chester Burnett A.K.A. Howlin’ Wolf was one of the three double albums issued by Chess in 1972 (under the new ownership of G.R.T. in New York) that have been elected to the Blues Hall of Fame. Who could go wrong with those essential collections of Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Little Walter? They were so good that when Chess was sold again, to All Platinum, the new owners launched their own series by releasing the same albums again, only with new titles, artwork and liner notes.
The Wolf set ranges from his first Chess single, ‘Moanin’ At Midnight,’ cut in 1951 for Sam Phillips in Memphis, through his early Chicago sides like ‘Smokestack Lightnin” and on into the Willie Dixon era of tight, hard-hitting, and finely crafted blues where Wolf’s Mississippi moan largely gave way to snappy, urban blues of the ’60s. All of Wolf’s signature tunes are here, most penned either by Wolf or Dixon, and all graced by the heavy hitters of Chicago’s superb corps of sidemen. Hubert Sumlin’s guitar leads the way on many of the later sides, but Jody Williams, Willie Johnson, and others make memorable contributions as well.
Tracks:
Disc 1: Smokestack Lightnin’/Down In The Bottom/No Place To Go/Moanin’ At Midnight/Forty-Four/My Country Sugar Mama//Spoonful/The Red Rooster/Moanin’ For My Baby/I Asked For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)/How Many More Years/Louise; Disc 2: Killing Floor/Evil (Is Goin’ On)/Back Door Man/Sitting On Top Of The World/Tail Dragger/Tell Me//Wang-Dang Doodle/Who’s Been Talkin’/Built For Comfort/Ooh Baby Hold Me/Baby How Long/Three Hundred Pounds of Joy
Released as a 2-LP set, Chess 2CH-60016, Chester Burnett A.K.A. Howlin’ Wolf, in 1972. Same tracks issued as another 2-LP set in the Chess Blues Masters Series with different cover art and liner notes on Chess 2ACMB-201, titled simply Howlin’ Wolf, in 1976.
For session details of each track, see The Blues Discography 1943-1970 by Les Fancourt & Bob McGrath.
— Jim O’Neal
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