Howlin' Wolf

Delta bluesman Howlin' Wolf was one of the most influential musicians of the post-World War II era, and his electric Chicago blues - featuring his deep, lupine voice - shaped rock & roll.

Chester Arthur Burnett, named after the 21st president, was raised on a cotton plantation in Ruleville, Mississippi, and learned guitar as a child. In the Mississippi Delta area he began studying with the rural masters, notably guitarist and vocalist Charley Patton, his biggest single influence, and his half sister’s husband, harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller).

As Howlin’ Wolf, he played his first gig in the South on January 15, 1928, and throughout the ’30s frequently performed on street corners. He formed his first band, the House Rockers, in Memphis in 1948 with pianist Bill Johnson, lead guitarist Willie Johnson, and drummer Willie Steele. Later personnel included at various times harmonica players James Cotton and Little Junior Parker, pianist Ike Turner, and guitarist Willie Johnson.

In 1951 Turner, a freelance talent scout, had Wolf record for Sam Phillips’ Memphis-based Sun Records. Those masters were then leased to Chess Records, and in 1957 one of them, “Moanin’ at Midnight,” became his first R&B hit. In 1952 Wolf moved to Chicago, where his music was well received. Some consider the recordings he made for Chess during the ’50s and ’60s his best. Among them were the 1957 R&B hit “Sitting on Top of the World,” “Spoonful,” “Smokestack Lightnin’,” “Little Red Rooster,” “I Ain’t Superstitious,” “Back Door Man,” “Killing Floor,” and “How Many More Years.” His songs, many of them written by Willie Dixon, have been covered by American and English rock acts like the Rolling Stones (with whom Wolf appeared on the Shindig! TV show in 1965), Grateful Dead, the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck, the Doors, Cream, the Electric Flag, Little Feat, and Led Zeppelin. Wolf, who stood an imposing 6-foot-3 and weighed nearly 300 pounds, frequently appeared at blues and rock festivals in the late ’60s and early ’70s. His 1971 album, The London Sessions, featured backup support from Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Steve Winwood, and Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones. That same year Wolf received an honorary doctorate from Columbia College in Chicago. He lived the last years of his life in Chicago’s crumbling South Side ghetto. He suffered several heart attacks in the early ’70s and received kidney dialysis treatment, but he continued to play occasionally; one of his last concerts was in November 1975 at the Chicago Amphitheatre with B.B. King, Bobby “Blue” Bland, and Little Milton. He entered a hospital in mid-December and died at age 65 of complications from kidney disease. Howlin’ Wolf was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)