Howlin' Wolf: Howlin' Wolf (Chess 75 series) [HIP-O RECORDS]

Why you'll love it

This Chess 75 edition is cut from the original analog tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at Quality Record Pressings and housed in a tip-on gatefold. Rolling Stone ranked the album No. 238 of the 500 greatest of all time, and Mojo called it the third greatest guitar album ever.

This edition

• Chess 75 series
• 180g vinyl
• Mono
• Remastered from the original analog tapes
• Pressed at Quality Record Pressings
• Tip-on gatefold jacket

About the album

Everybody calls it the Rockin' Chair album, thanks to Don S. Bronstein's cover drawing of an empty chair and a guitar leaning against it. It's a gentle image for a record that sounds like a freight train. Chess gathered twelve singles cut between 1957 and 1961, and the result became one of the cornerstones of Chicago blues.

Most of the songs come from Willie Dixon, who also plays bass, and Hubert Sumlin's jagged guitar lines are all over them. "Wang Dang Doodle," "Spoonful," "Back Door Man" and "Shake for Me" are here, alongside Wolf's own "Who's Been Talkin'" and "Tell Me." Otis Spann, Jimmy Rogers, Buddy Guy, Fred Below and Sam Lay pass through the sessions, and Wolf's voice towers over all of it. Ralph Bass produced, with Ron Malo engineering, and the twelve songs add up to just under 32 minutes of Chicago heat.

The covers followed fast. The Rolling Stones took "Little Red Rooster" to No. 1 in the UK, Cream stretched "Spoonful" out on stage, The Doors cut "Back Door Man," and Led Zeppelin borrowed lines for "Whole Lotta Love." Half of rock history, it turns out, learned its manners from one rocking chair.

Also at Kops: more Howlin' Wolf on vinyl · browse Blues

Tracklist

Listen

On Chess, a reissue of the 1962 album.