 | Blues:Top 100 Acts |
DavesMusicDatabase.com is devoted to ranking, rating, and reviewing music of all genres and eras. The DMDB blog serves up album and song reviews, best-of lists, music history snapshots, and music-related essays.
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Showing posts with label Howlin' Wolf. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Howlin' Wolf. Show all posts
Monday, March 16, 2026
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Top 50 Blues Albums of All Time
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| Blues:The Top 50 Albums |
This list started as a post on the DMDB Facebook page (Top 10 Blues and Blues/Rock Albums) on 2/23/2010. The list has since been expanded by aggregating more than 50 lists focused on blues and blues/rock albums. This list focuses on those albums which scored higher on the blues lists. Albums which made three or more lists were then sorted by overall status in Dave’s Music Database. Check out other best-of-genre/category lists here. 
1. Robert Johnson The Complete Recordings (compilation: 1936-37, released 1990)
11. Eric Clapton: From the Cradle (1994)
21. Howlin’ Wolf The Chess Box (compilation: 1951-73, released 1991)
31. Memphis Minnie Bumble Bee: The Essential Recordings (compilation: 1929-41, released 1997)
41. Mississippi Fred McDowell I Do Not Play No Rock and Roll (1969) * These were initially released as two separate albums, but are now typically packaged together. Resources and Related Links:
Lists Focused on Blues Albums:
First posted 9/10/2018; last updated 3/19/2024. |
Wednesday, August 23, 2023
Sun Records: Top 50 Songs
 | Sun RecordsTop 50 Songs |
Sun Records has been called the birthplace of rock and roll. In January 1950, Sam Phillips opened Memphis Recording Service, which evolved into Sun Records in 1952. Located in Memphis, Tennessee, the studio focused on southern-rooted music like blues and country. It was the merger of these two genres which has largely been defined as the beginning of rock and roll. To that end, the studio birthed songs such as “Rocket 88” by Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats and “That’s All Right” by Elvis Presley, which have both staked claims as the first rock and roll song. Of course, the studio is best known as the launching pad for Elvis Presley, but it also served that purpose for B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Junior Parker, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Charlie Rich. Click here to see other genre-specific song lists. |
Top 50 SongsDave’s Music Database lists are determined by song’s appearances on best-of lists, appearances on compilations and live albums by the featured act, and songs’ chart success, sales, radio airplay, streaming, and awards.
DMDB Top 1%:
1. Jerry Lee Lewis “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” (1957) DMDB Top 2%:
8. Elvis Presley “Mystery Train” (1955) DMDB Top 5%:
9. Bill Justis “Raunchy” (1957) DMDB Top 10%:
11. Jerry Lee Lewis “Crazy Arms” (1956) DMDB Top 20%:
18. Elvis Presley “Baby Let’s Play House” (1955)
21. Carl Perkins “Honey Don’t” (1956)
31. Carl Perkins “Dixie Fried” (1956) Beyond the DMDB Top 20%:
32. Johnny Cash “The Ways of a Woman in Love” (1958)
41. Jerry Lee Lewis “You Win Again” (1957) Resources and Related Links:
First posted 8/21/2023; last updated 8/23/2023. |
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
Blues Hall of Fame: Song Inductees, 1983-2023
 | Blues Hall of Fame:Song Inductees, 1983-2023 |
The Blues Hall of Fame, operated by the Blues Foundation, officially opened its doors in Memphis, Tennessee in 2015. However, they started in 1980 honoring performers, non-performers, literature, albums, and “Classics of Blues Recording: Singles or Album Tracks.” This page lists those songs which have been inducted since the first year in 1983 through the present. Check other lists based on charts, sales, and airplay here. Year of Induction: Performer “Song” (year released) A
B
C
D-E
F-G
H-I
J
K-L
M-N
O-P
Q-R
S
T-U-V
W-X-Y-Z
Resources/Related Links:
First posted 5/10/2023; last updated 9/11/2023. |
Friday, July 22, 2022
Dave's Music Database Hall of Fame: Song Inductees (July 2022)
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Originally posted July 22, 2022. In honor of the 10th anniversary of the DMDB blog on January 22, 2019, Dave’s Music Database launched its own Hall of Fame. This is the 15th set of song inductees. These songs all appear in the Dave’s Music Database list of the Top 100 Blues Songs and have been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. |
John Lee Hooker “Boogie Chillen’” (1949)Inducted July 2022 as “Blues Songs” |
| John Lee Hooker “was born in 1917 at ground zero of the blues, Clarksdale, Mississippi.” TC He learned his playing style from his stepfather, Will Moore. He said of his first release, “Boogie Chillen,” that it was a guitar boogie like what his father played down south. BH It was the first “down-home electric blues record” to top the R&B charts. BH Read more. |  |
John Lee Hooker “Boom Boom” (1962)Inducted July 2022 as “Blues Songs” |
| Blues great John Lee Hooker first found success with 1949’s “Boogie Chillen,” a #1 R&B hit recorded at his first recording session. However, it wasn’t until 1962’s “Boom Boom” – a song on which he was accompanied by the famed Motown session men known as the Funk Brothers – that Hooker had his sole entry on the pop charts. It would also be his final appearance on the R&B charts. It was inspired by Luilla, a bartender at the Apex Bar in Detroit where Hooker used to play. She’d say, “Boom Boom, you’re late again” when he arrived. As he said, “She gave me a song but she didn’t know it.” SF Read more. |
Howlin Wolf “Smokestack Lightnin’” (1956)Inducted July 2022 as “Blues Songs” |
| Chester Arthur Burnett was nicknamed “Wolf” by his maternal grandmother; a title he would more than grow into with his menacing adult frame of 6’ 3” and 300 pounds and a voice which made it sound “like he subsisted on a diet of broken glass…washed down…with kerosene.” SS He first recorded “Smokestack Lightning” as “Crying at Daybreak” in 1951, but it was a song he’d performed since the early 1930s. Lightning finally struck for him when the re-recorded version hit the top 10 on the R&B charts in 1956. Read more. |  |
Robert Johnson “Cross Road Blues” (1936)Inducted July 2022 as “Blues Songs” |
| Robert Johnson has often been called “The Father of the Blues.” His most important song may well be “Cross Road Blues,” not just because it became a staple for Eric Clapton but it promotes one of the greatest legends in rock and roll. According to the legend, Johnson acquired masterful guitar playing skills overnight, supposedly because he went to the crossroads (an intersection of rural roads) and sold his soul to the Devil. However, Johnson “sings nary a word about devil-dealing” BH in “Cross Road Blues;” rather he is trying unsuccessfully to hitch a ride at the crossroads. Read more. |  |
Robert Johnson “Hell Hound on My Trail” (1937)Inducted July 2022 as “Blues Songs” |
| Blues historian Ted Gioia said “Hell Hound on My Trail” might be Johnson’s greatest work. WK This is a showcase for “a disturbing vision of a blues poet haunted by spirits, doomed to die before he would ever see the fruits of an alleged deal with the devil.” BH Johnson proved to be “a master synthesizer, pulling together bits and pieces of existing material and infusing them with something entirely his own.” SS Read more. |  |
B.B. King “The Thrill Is Gone” (1969)Inducted July 2022 as “Blues Songs” |
| Legendary blues singer and guitarist B.B. King reached the R&B charts 76 times from 1951 to 1992, including four chart-toppers early in his career. While he had a half dozen more successful R&B chart entries than “The Thrill Is Gone” it was his biggest hit on the Billboard Hot 10. The song is a cover of a 1951 slow, blues ballad by Roy Hawkins but in King’s hands it became “a modern blues epic.” SS Rock critic Dave Marsh speculated that it might be “the last great blues record.” DM Read more. |  |
Clarence “Pine Top” Smith “Pine Top’s Boogie Woogie” (1929)Inducted July 2022 as “Blues Songs” |
| This “rhythmical, driving piano tune” SS is credited “with laying the foundation for the boogie woogie craze.” BH The form is marked by “a bass melody…repeated over and over while the upper voice melody and chord structure change above it.” TY2 Clarence “Pine Top” Smith started playing “Pine Top’s Boogie Woogie” at rent-parties in the black ghettos of Chicago. TY2 He took the term “boogie woogie” from his background in dance. SS Read more. |  |
T-Bone Walker “Call It Stormy Monday” (1947)Inducted July 2022 as “Blues Songs” |
| Aaron Thibeaux “T-Bone” Walker is often called “the father of electric blues.” SS He “deeply influenced virtually every guitarist during the decade following World War II” SS with his blend of blues and jazz guitar. UP It was “Call It Stormy Monday” “that made him a legend.” SS It is “one of the most influential records not only in blues history, but in guitar history.” BH “It became a song that virtually every blues band had to know; in fact, it was also required learning for countless jazz, soul, pop, and rock performers who may have had no other blues songs in their entire repertoires.” BH Read more. |  |
Muddy Waters “Hoochie Coochie Man” (1954)Inducted July 2022 as “Blues Songs” |
| Music historian Steve Sullivan called Muddy Waters “the mighty rock upon which the foundation of postwar Chicago blues was constructed” SS and “Hoochie Coochie Man” was his “defining song.” SS It was the first of many Willie Dixon songs recorded by Waters. It was the biggest hit of Waters’ career, reaching #3 on the R&B chart, but “its influence on rock music in general is incalculable.” LW Read more. |  |
Bo Diddley “I’m a Man” / Muddy Waters “Mannish Boy” (1955)Inducted July 2022 as “Blues Songs” |
| “I’m a Man” was the first song recorded by Bo Diddley and it became the B-side of his debut single, the eponymous “Bo Diddley” which topped the R&B chart. The song was inspired by “Hoochie Coochie Man” by Muddy Waters, who then recorded “Mannish Boy” as a remake/answer song, mocking Diddley’s younger age. “Coming from Waters, a mature adult figure with a voice that booms like God’s, virtually the same words are far more leering and imposing. Waters isn’t kidding around; he is a man and his sexual boasts and demands aren’t fantasies, they’re real.” DM Read more. |  |
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
Dave's Music Database Hall of Fame: Music Maker Inductees (March 2022)
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Top 10 Blues ActsOriginally posted 3/22/2022. January 22, 2019 marked the 10-year anniversary of the DMDB blog! To honor that, Dave’s Music Database announced its own Hall of Fame. This thirteenth class of music maker inductees is comprised of the top 10 blues acts of all time (see the full list here). These are the top 10 from that list, minus previous inductees Eric Clapton and Bessie Smith. |
Buddy Guy (1936-)Inducted March 2022 as a “Top 10 Blues Act” |
| Blues guitarist born in Lettsworth, Louisiana. Blues Hall of Fame and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. Also a recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a Kennedy Center Honoree. “Damn Right I’ve Got the Blues” ranks as one of the top 100 blues songs of all time and author Tom Moon features the album of the same name in his book 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Read more. |  |
John Lee Hooker (1917-2001)Inducted March 2022 as a “Top 10 Blues Act” |
| Blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Blues Hall of Fame and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. Also a recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and Rhythm & Blues Foundation Pioneer Award . He charted nine times on the R&B chart, reaching #1 with “Boogie Chillen’” and “I’m in the Mood.” The former has been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, Grammy Hall of Fame (as has “Boom Boom”), and National Recording Registry. His compilation The Legendary Modern Recordings ranks as one of the top 50 blues albums and The Folklore of John Lee Hooker was Mojo magazine’s Album of the Year. Read more. |  |
Howlin’ Wolf (1910-1976)Inducted March 2022 as a “Top 10 Blues Act” |
| Blues singer and guitarist born in White Station, Mississippi. Blues Hall of Fame and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. He reached the top 10 four times on the R&B chart, including the songs “How Many More Years” and “Smokestack Lightning,” which are 2 of his 6 songs featured in the Blues Hall of Fame. His compilations Moanin’ in the Moonlight and Howlin' Wolf (aka ‘The Rockin' Chair Album’) are in the top 1000 albums of all time. Read more. |  |
Robert Johnson (1911-1938)Inducted March 2022 as a “Top 10 Blues Act” |
| Blues singer and guitarist born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. Inductee in the Blues Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, R&B Hall of Fame, and Downbeat Jazz Hall of Fame. Also a recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. “Cross Road Blues” ranks in the the top 1% of all time. It’s one of six songs in the Blues Hall of Fame, including “Sweet Home Chicago” (both of which are in the Grammy Hall of Fame). Two of the others are “Hell Hound on My Trail” and “A Love in Vain.” Those four are also in the the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s top 500 songs of all time. The Complete Recordings is featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Albums of the 20th Century. Read more. |  |
Albert King (1923-1992)Inducted March 2022 as a “Top 10 Blues Act” |
| Blues guitarist born in Indianola, Mississippi. Blues Hall of Fame and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. He reached the R&B chart 19 times. “Crosscut Saw,” “Born Under a Bad Sign,” and “I’ll Play the Blues for You” are all in the Blues Hall of Fame. His album Born Under a Bad Sign ranks in the top 1% of all time and is in the Blues Hall of Fame, Grammy Hall of Fame, and the National Recording Registry. Read more. |  |
B.B. King (1925-2015)Inducted March 2022 as a “Top 10 Blues Act” |
| Blues singer and guitarist born it Itta Bena, Mississippi. Inductee in the Blues Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame R&B Hall of Fame, Big Band/Jazz Hall of Fame, and Downbeat Jazz Hall of Fame. Also a recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and Kennedy Center Honoree. He reached the R&B chart 76 times, including #1 four times. One of those was “Three O’Clock Blues,” which was also inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, as was “Every Day I Have the Blues” and “The Thrill Is Gone.” The latter three are also in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Live at the Regal is one of the top 1000 albums of all time. It’s also in the Blues Hall of Fame, Grammy Hall of Fame, and the National Recording Registry. Read more. |  |
Stevie Ray Vaugahn (1954-1990)Inducted March 2022 as a “Top 10 Blues Act” |
| Blues-rock guitarist and singer born in Dallas, Texas. Blues Hall of Fame and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. He reached the mainstream rock chart 19 times, including #1 with “Crossfire.” “Texas Flood” and “Pride and Joy” rank in the DMDB’s top 100 blues songs of all time. The latter is also in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s top 500 songs of all time. Texas Flood is one of the top 1000 albums of all time and is in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Read more. |  |
Muddy Waters (1913-1983)Inducted March 2022 as a “Top 10 Blues Act” |
| Blues singer, guitarist, and harmonica player born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. Inductee in the Blues Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, R&B Hall of Fame, and Downbeat Jazz Hall of Fame. Also a recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He reached the top 10 on the R&B charts 14 times. He has six songs in the the Blues Hall of Fame and four in the Grammy Hall of Fame; “Rollin’ Stone,” “Hoochie Coochie Man,” and “Got My Mojo Working” are in both. At Newport is one of the top 1000 albums of all time. Read more. |  |
Sunday, August 22, 2021
Dave's Music Database Hall of Fame: Albums (Aug. 2021)
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Originally posted 8/22/2021. January 22, 2019 marked the 10-year anniversary of the DMDB blog. To honor that, Dave’s Music Database announced its own Hall of Fame. This month marks the eleventh group of album inductees. These are amongst the top twenty blues albums of all time, excluding previous inductees Robert Johnson’s The Complete Recordings, Bessie Smith’s The Essential, and Charley Patton’s Founder of the Delta Blues. |
Muddy Waters At Newport (live, 1960)Inducted August 2021 as “Top Blues Albums.” |
| This was “a great breakthrough moment in blues history.” AMG “Though his ‘50s recordings…revolutionized modern blues, it wasn’t until his raw, plugged-in steer blew up the Newport Folk Festival that whites in America gave Muddy (and the blues) proper respect.” VB “This was many white folks’ first exposure” BL “to live recorded blues.” AMG It was also significant because “the jazz audience opened its ears and embraced Chicago blues.” AMG Read more. |  |
Bobby “Blue” Band Two Steps from the Blues (recorded 1956-60, released 1961)Inducted August 2021 as “Top Blues Albums.” |
| “Two Steps from the Blues is the definitive Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland album and one of the great records in electric blues and soul-blues. In fact, it’s one of the key albums in modern blues, marking a turning point when juke joint blues were seamlessly blended with gospel and Southern soul, creating a distinctly Southern sound where all of these styles blended so thoroughly it was impossible to tell where one began and one ended.” STE Read more. |  |
Howlin’ Wolf Moanin’ in the Moonlight/Howlin’ Wolf (aka “The Rockin’ Chair Album”) (1959/1962)Inducted August 2021 as “Top Blues Albums.” |
| Howlin’ Wolf’s first two albums were compilations covering the years 1951 to 1962. Amongst the songs are “How Many More Years,” “Smokestack Lightning,” “Spoonful,” and “The Little Red Rooster,” all of which have been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. In the CD era, they were packaged as one release, making for an effective overview of “the cream of Wolf’s Chicago blues work.” SC Both albums have been inducted in the Blues Hall of Fame. Read more. |  |
B.B. King Live at the Regal (recorded live 1964, released 1965)Inducted August 2021 as “Top Blues Albums.” |
| B.B. “King, who has been called ‘The King of the Blues’ and the ‘best blues artist of his generation,’ has been a primary influence on a number of artists, including Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton and Mike Bloomfield.” NRR “King is not only a timeless singer and guitarist, he’s also a natural-born entertainer, and on Live at the Regal the listener is treated to an exhibition of all three of his talents.” DG The album was significant in King’s career because it graduated him from a largely black following to a much larger white audience. Read more. |  |
John Mayall’s Blue Breakers Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (1966)Inducted August 2021 as “Top Blues Albums.” |
| “Rarely has any single record album induced such a shift in popular music.” LP This is “perhaps the best British blues album ever cut.” BE It reinvented “the American blues for a fresh audience” LP giving “rise to subgenres such as heavy metal and other roots-related rock.” LP The album significantly featured guest Eric Clapton on his “first fully realized album as a blues guitarist,” BE coming in between his stints with the Yardbirds and Cream. His work “catapulted him” LP “to the helm of the burgeoning British blues-rock scene” LP and “international exposure as well as legendary guitar rock idol status.” LP Read more. |  |
Albert King Born Under a Bad Sign (1967)Inducted August 2021 as “Top Blues Albums.” |
| This Grammy Hall of Fame and National Recording Registry inductee features two songs (“Born Under a Bad Sign,” “Crosscut Saw”) which are Blues Hall of Fame inductees. The album marked King’s arrival at Stax Records where he recorded with Booker T & the MG’s and found the crossover appeal he’d previously been missing. AllMusic.com’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine calls this “one of the very greatest electric blues albums of all time.” AMG Read more. |  |
Willie Dixon The Chess Box (compilation: 1951-69, released 1988)Inducted August 2021 as “Top Blues Albums.” |
| “Songwriter, producer, and talent scout, singer-bassist Willie Dixon essentially built Chicago's Cobra and Chess labels with his sweat.” AZ This collection features 13 different artists including Bo Diddley, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Koko Taylor, and Muddy Waters, but with one unifying theme – all of these songs are written by Dixon, making a case for him to be crowned “king of the blues composers.” BF Read more. |  |
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble Texas Flood (1983)Inducted August 2021 as “Top Blues Albums.” |
| “Produced by legendary talent scout John Hammond,” TD1 Texas Flood “captures the rising guitar star” TD1 “as rockin’ blues purist.” TD2 “Critics claimed that, no matter how prodigious Vaughan’s instrumental talents were, he didn’t forge a distinctive voice” STE but “that was sort of the point of Texas Flood. Vaughan didn’t hide his influences; he celebrated them, pumping fresh blood into a familiar genre” STE and becoming the “torchbearer of the ‘80s-‘90s blues revival.” TD2 Read more. |  |
Robert Cray Strong Persuader (1986)Inducted August 2021 as “Top Blues Albums.” |
| Strong Persuader, Cray’s fifth studio album, was his mainstream breakthrough, opening up blues to a wider audience than it had received in decades. The Village Voice, Robert Christgau called it “the first album to break out of the genre’s sales ghetto since B.B. King was a hot item” WK and “the best blues record in many, many years.” WK Read more. |  |
Eric Clapton From the Cradle (1994)Inducted August 2021 as “Top Blues Albums.” |
| No white man did more to expose blues to mass audiences than Eric Clapton. Before launching his solo career, his work with groups virtually established the blues-rock genre. As a solo artist, he regularly slipped blues covers into his albums. When his Unplugged album became the most successful of his career, selling 20 million copies and winning the Grammy for Album of the Year, he used his new-found clout to record his first all-blues cover album. Whle “he doesn’t have the strength to pull off Howlin’ Wolf’s growl or the confidence to replicate Muddy Waters’ assured phrasing” STE “the album manages to re-create the ambience of postwar electric blues, right down to the bottomless thump of the rhythm section.” STE Read more. |  |
Friday, January 3, 2020
Today in Music (1950): Sun Records opened
 | January 3, 1950Sun Records opened. |
Sam Phillips opened the Memphis Recording Service in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 3, 1950. The building served as the headquarters for the failed Phillips Records and his later Sun Records label. He used the studio to record amateurs such as B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, and Junior Parker and then sold their performances to larger record labels. During its 16-year run, Sun produced 226 singles and more rock and roll records than any of its contemporary record labels. WK One of the most significant songs to come out of Sun was “Rocket 88” by Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats. The song was released by Chess in 1951 and has been called the first rock and roll record by some historians. Phillips was interested primarily in the blues, an art form which he thought both white and black people understood. As he said, it was how people “relieved the burden of what existed day in and day out.” WK In addition to the blues artists mentioned above, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Little Milton, and Rufus Thomas recorded there. Part of the company’s appeal, however, was its broad range of genres. Sun has become most associated with launching the careers of more rockabilly-oriented artists like Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Roy Orbison. Of course, the label benefited most from its discovery of Elvis Presley. When Sun was experiencing financial trouble in 1955, Phillips famously sold Elvis’ contract to RCA Records. The sale helped boost some of the other artists, most notably the distribution for Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes”, the first national hit for Sun Records. In 1959, Phillips Recording opened to replace the old facility. Phillips sold the label in 1969. Gary Hardy reopened the original building in 1987 as Sun Studio and attracted artists such as U2, Def Leppard, Ringo Starr, and Bonnie Raitt. In 2003, the building was recognized as a National Historic Landmark. Resources:
First posted 1/3/2012; updated 12/30/2023. |
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