The Complete RPM & Chess Singles As & Bs 1951-62

Chester Burnett, better known as Howlin’ Wolf, was one of the most important and influential figures in Chicago Blues through the 1950s, and along with Muddy Waters helped to establish the electric blues style that laid the foundations for rock music in subsequent decades. With his imposing physical presence and loud, almost fearsome voice, he was a powerful and impressive performer, who wrote and popularised songs which have become classic standards of the genre, like “Spoonful”, “Smokestack Lightning”, “Killing Floor” and “Red Rooster”, which became fixtures in the repertoire of bands like The Rolling Stones, who very much championed his cause and widened his reputation in the latter years of his career. This collection brings together both sides of all the singles he released through the RPM and Chess labels during the first hugely important decade of his career, along with bonus tracks comprising recordings made at sessions during this period which were not released as singles at the time. It’s a great-value 80-track 3-CD set, which showcases one of the major personalities of the blues.