Howlin’ Wolf Boxed Up from Hip-o Select

September 26, 2011 By Mike Duquette — No Comments

The name Chester Arthur Burnett might not mean anything to the average music fan, but mention his famous nickname – Howlin’ Wolf – and the game changes. Howlin’ Wolf was one of the pioneers of the blues, a legend on the Chicago scene and a powerful force to be reckoned with on the electric guitar.

Hip-o Select celebrates his lengthy legacy through a new four-disc box set of recordings for his longtime home base, Chess Records. Wolf was signed to Leonard Chess’ label in 1951, and began to craft some of the most rip-roaring tunes and performances of the genre, from “Moanin’ at Midnight” to “Smokestack Lightnin’.” His popularity among British blues musicians was typically sterling; The Rolling Stones got him on a 1965 appearance on the Brit variety show Shindig!, and Stones Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts joined Wolf, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood and Ian Stewart on the 1970 LP The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions.

Wolf passed away in 1976, leaving behind a comfortable legacy and a loving family (he did not suffer the iniquities commonly associated with blues musicianship), and this legacy remains strong today; he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 and “Smokestack Lightnin'” entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Now, Select’s exhaustive collection – featuring all of his early singles for Chess as well as numerous alternates and outtakes (including 17 tracks never before released on disc in the U.S.), all in a nicely-designed box with a 45-page book of liner notes – provides the definitive Wolf pack, if ever there was one.

Order your copy and check out the track list after the jump.

Howlin’ Wolf, Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters 1961-1970 (Hip-o Select B0015309-02, 2011)

Disc 1

  1. Moanin’ At Midnight
  2. How Many More Years (Alternate) *
  3. How Many More Years
  4. The Wolf is At Your Door (Howlin’ for My Baby)
  5. California Boogie *
  6. Smile At Me *
  7. Howlin’ Wolf Boogie
  8. California Blues #1
  9. Look-A-Here Baby
  10. Worried All the Time
  11. Gettin’ Old and Grey
  12. Mr. Highway Man
  13. Everybody’s in the Mood
  14. Color and Kind
  15. Bluebird
  16. Saddle My Pony
  17. Dorothy Mae (Alternate) *
  18. Dorothy Mae
  19. Sweet Woman (a/k/a I Got a Woman)
  20. (Well) That’s All Right
  21. Decoration Day
  22. Oh! Red
  23. My Last Affair
  24. I’ve Got a Woman
  25. Just My Kind
  26. Work for Your Money

Disc 2

  1. I’m Not Joking
  2. Mama Died and Left Me
  3. All Night Boogie (All Night Long)
  4. I Love My Baby
  5. Highway My Friend
  6. Hold Your Money
  7. Streamline Woman
  8. California Blues #2
  9. Stay Here Til My Baby Comes Back
  10. Crazy About You Baby
  11. No Place to Go (You Gonna Wreck My Life)
  12. You Gonna Wreck My Life (Alternate Take)
  13. Neighbors
  14. I’m the Wolf
  15. Rockin’ Daddy
  16. Baby How Long
  17. Evil (is Going On)
  18. I’ll Be Around
  19. Forty Four
  20. Who Will Be Next
  21. I Have a Little Girl
  22. Come to Me Baby
  23. Don’t Mess with My Baby
  24. Smokestack Lightnin’
  25. You Can’t Be Beat
  26. I Asked for Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)

Disc 3

  1. Break of Day
  2. The Natchez Burnin’
  3. Going Back Home *
  4. Bluebird
  5. My Life
  6. You Ought to Know
  7. Tell Me
  8. Somebody in My Home (Alternate) *
  9. Somebody in My Home
  10. Nature (Takes 1/4/6) *
  11. Nature (Alternate)
  12. Nature
  13. Walk to Camp Hall
  14. Poor Boy (Alternate)
  15. Poor Boy
  16. My Baby Told Me (Alternate)
  17. Sitting on Top of the World
  18. I Didn’t Know *
  19. I Better Go Now (Howlin’ Blues) (Alternate) *
  20. Howlin’ Blues
  21. I Better Go Now (Multiple Takes) *
  22. I Didn’t Know
  23. Moaning for My Baby
  24. Moaning for My Baby (Midnight Blues) (Takes 3 & 4) *

Disc 4

  1. I’m Leaving You (Alternate Take) *
  2. I’m Leaving You (Takes #7-10) *
  3. I’m Leaving You
  4. Can’t Put Me Out (Alternate #1) *
  5. Can’t Put Me Out (Alternate #2) *
  6. (You) Can’t Put Me Out
  7. Change My Way
  8. Getting Late
  9. I’ve Been Abused (Takes #4-12) *
  10. I’ve Been Abused *
  11. Howlin’ for My Baby (Takes #1-7) *
  12. Howlin’ for My Darling (or Baby)
  13. Wolf in the Mood (Instrumental)
  14. My People’s Gone
  15. Mr. Airplane Man (Takes 1 & 2)
  16. Mr. Airplane Man
  17. Wang Dang Doodle
  18. Back Door Man
  19. Spoonful
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Mike Duquette
Mike Duquette

Mike Duquette (Founder) was fascinated with catalog music ever since he was a teenager. A 2009 graduate of Seton Hall University with a B.A. in journalism, Mike paired his profession with his passion through The Second Disc, one of the first sites to focus on all reissue labels great and small. His passion for reissues turned into a career, having written at and worked for all three major catalogue music labels and contributing to Allmusic, Billboard, Discogs, City Pages and Ultimate Classic Rock. He's penned liner notes for Verve, Chess, Mondo and Soul Music Records.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Mike lives in Astoria, Queens with his wife, a cat named Ravioli, twin daughters and a large yet tasteful collection of music.

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0 thoughts on “Howlin’ Wolf Boxed Up from Hip-o Select”

  1. Kevin

    No comments on the most intense singer in the blues tradition?

    This should be very good, but I wish Hip-O would give these artists the type of treatment that Bear Family does. Hip-O’s booklets are pathetic and their CD packaging is terrible. The music is great, but Hip-O had nothing to do with that.

    Reply
    1. Andrea

      I agree. People at Hip-O obviously think they’re very clever and their products valuable and unique… while most of the times they’re just pretentious and arty- farty.

      Reply
      1. Kevin

        Well said. Another thing: Most of the artists that Hip-O reissues are the great legendary giants of music (e.g. Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, etc.) Why should these artists principal works be limited editions? Chuck Berry’s masters should all be in print all of the time. He certainly deserves to have his catalog in print in a respectable edition with proper notes. The silly cardboard fold-outs are cheap to the extreme. The cheap cardboard foldout with no real notes would not be so bad if the price was set like a European product (4 CDs for $25 in the real marketplace).

        How many people here think that Chuck Berry or Howlin Wolf’s estate get any REAL royalties from Hip-O from their high priced products? The answer is in the company’s name (“O”).

        Reply
  2. Richard

    I’d be more interested, but I already have these and more as part of the Howlin’ Wolf box: The Complete Recordings 1951-1969 on Charley Records.

    Reply

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