Moanin’ in the Moonlight (Chess 1434) was the first compilation of Wolf’s work to be issued on LP, in 1959, and marks the fifth time the Blues Hall of Fame has inducted a Wolf album on Chess. As with most of his other Chess LPs, this was a collection of singles, here including four of the five tracks that hit the Billboard charts as 78s or 45s in the ’50s — the double-sided 1951 Memphis recording of ‘Moanin’ at Midnight’/’How Many More Years,’ plus ‘Smokestack Lightnin” and ‘I Asked for Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)’ from 1956 Chicago sessions. Other tracks are just as highly regarded as classics today, including ‘Forty Four,’ ‘No Place to Go’ and ‘Evil.’ Adding to Wolf’s unmatched ferocity is a brilliant pack of sidemen, including guitarists Jody Williams, Hubert Sumlin, Willie Johnson and the unsung Lee Cooper. This music is all available today, of course, on multiple reissue sets, but for an introduction back in 1959, Chess could hardly have done better.
