Tuesday, March 25, 1997

Mar. 25, 1997: Muddy Waters compilation, His Best 1947-55, released

Last updated September 7, 2018.

Best of/His Best

Muddy Waters

Best of

His Best 1947 to 1955

Released: April 1958 ^B, Mar. 25, 1997 ^H

Years Covered: 1948-54 ^B, 1947-55 ^H

Sales (in millions):
US: --
UK: --
IFPI: --
World (estimated): --

Peak:
US: --
UK: --
Canada: --
Australia: --

^B Best of
^H His Best 1947-1955

Quotable: “Perfect country blues” – Ken Hohman, Amazon.com

Genre: blues

Album Tracks: ^H

I Can’t Be Satisfied (9/18/48, #11 RB) ^B
I Feel Like Going Home (9/18/48, B-side of “Satisfied”)
Train Fare Home (1948)
Rollin’ and Tumblin’ (1950)
Rollin’ Stone (1950) ^B
Louisiana Blues (1/13/51, #10 RB) ^B
Long Distance Call (4/14/51, #8 RB) ^B
Honey Bee (7/14/51, #10) ^B
Still a Fool (11/24/51, #9 RB) ^B
She Moves Me (2/23/52, #10 RB) ^B
Standing Around Crying (1952) ^B
Mad Love (I Want You to Love Me) (11/21/53, #6 RB) ^B
Baby Please Don’t Go (1953)
(I’m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man (3/13/54, #3 RB) ^B
I Just Want to Make Love to You (6/5/54, #4 RB) ^B
I’m Ready (10/23/54, #4 RB) ^B
Mannish Boy (6/30/55, #5 RB)
Young Fashioned Ways (1955)
Sugar Sweet (1955)
Trouble No More (1955)

All of the above tracks are featured on His Best 1947-1955 (^H). Tracks featured on Best of are noted by ^B.

Singles/Hit Songs:

Click here for the chart codes for singles/hit songs.

Review:

In 1958, Chess Records released a Muddy Waters’ greatest hits collection simply entitled The Best of Muddy Waters. It compiled a dozen songs which were initially issued as singles from 1948 to 1954. Most appeared on Billboard magazine’s R&B charts. It was the first Muddy Waters album and only the third album released by Chess on the LP (long-playing) format. ^WK In 1983, it was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

Nearly 40 years later, as part of their 50th anniversary series, Chess released a new compilation (His Best 1947-55) ^JH which covered all the songs on the original Best of collection plus another eight songs.

These songs represent Waters from his formative years through his peak. Listeners are “in for a lot of terrific bottleneck slide guitar work as well as electric Chicago blues.” ^KH These “tracks are spare, haunting and, quite frankly, perfect country blues.” ^KH “I Can't Be Satisfied, Rollin' and Tumblin’, I’m Ready, and Mannish Boy are simply beyond reproach.” ^KH The latter song and “Hoochie Coochie Man have sparked endless imitations over the years – and…nobody has played them better since.” ^KH