I began listening to Howlin' Wolf in January 2024 and finished the albums below by mid February. I started off with Memphis Days before going to His Best. I regret that. Although Memphis Days is the right place to start, you should follow that up with his first two studio albums, Moanin' in the Moonlight and Howlin' Wolf, in order to get the best historical picture. If you do this, listening to His Best will not further deepen your insights into the man, as fourteen of its twenty cuts will already be familiar to you. However, you may still find His Best to have utility. Because of its relatively short and outstanding track-list, I anticipate picking it up more frequently than either of his first two studio albums when I'm in the mood for the Wolf.
Memphis Days: The Definitive Edition, Vol. 1 (1989): B
Moanin' in the Moonlight (1959): A-
Howlin' Wolf (1962): A
His Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection (1997): A+
Howlin' Wolf: Memphis Days: The Definitive Edition, Vol. 1 (1989):
Chester Arthur Burnett hailed from Mississippi but moved in the 1940s to Memphis, where he formed a band and began playing for a local radio show. In 1951, he was discovered by young Ike Turner, who was a talent scout for Sam Phillips (later the founder of Sun Records). With Phillips at Sun Studios, he recorded a number of songs from 1951 to 1953, including his first two hits: "Moanin' at Midnight" and "How Many More Years." Although not necessarily his best recordings, these Memphis sessions are of particular interest to many Howlin' Wolf fans because they include his only recordings with guitarist Willie Johnson (no, not Blind Willie Johnson), a Memphis shredder who ultimately stayed behind when Wolf moved to Chicago to make it big in late 1952. Johnson is a great guitarist, who plays it much louder and faster than many of his contemporaries, but these recordings aren't spectacular or highly important otherwise. Memphis Days doesn't include everything Wolf recorded with Johnson either--for one, it chose alternative takes of his first two hits--and it probably could have included even less on its one hour track-listing. But it's as good place as any to start in Wolf's discography and offers many strong performances from the legendary vocalist, who was already 40 years old. B
Howlin' Wolf: Moanin' in the Moonlight (1959):
While seemingly not essential for those who have already listened to His Best, Wolf's first album nevertheless houses an impressive track-list. Six of its twelve cuts appear on the popular compilation, but six other smashing singles songs enhance what is already known. In retrospective, this track-list also nicely documents the excellent songwriting he did in his first seven years of recording, with only two songs be written by others. A-
Howlin' Wolf: Howlin' Wolf (1962):
Although Wolf was no longer as commercially successful after his first album, he continued to be musically active and started more closely collaborating with songwriter Willie Dixon in 1960. When the time came for his second album, the track-list featured nine songs by Dixon and only two by Wolf, a complete switch from the breakdown of his first album! While these songs weren't immediately successful, they were eventually covered in England and have become some of Wolf's most recognizable works. In fact, His Best takes even more from his second studio album and it's easy to see why. With an even more irresistible growl and more memorable track-list, his second album is better than the first. A
Howlin' Wolf: His Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection (1997):
Although Chess chose to split Muddy Waters's biggest hits into two chronological volumes of twenty songs, they released Howlin' Wolf's biggest hits on His Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection (also known as The Definitive Collection) in the same year without a second volume in mind. Thus, this twenty song track-list covers his material from the large stretch of 1951 to 1965. Nevertheless, the lengthy period this compilation covers is easy to miss. Howlin' Wolf did little to change his approach during these years, hiring distinctive lead guitarist Hubert Sumlin in 1954 and holding on to him up into the 1970s. Never exactly a vocalist who relied on a youthful vocal either, the fourteen years changed nothing about the juicy allure of his bellowy and wheezy voice or the vitality of his rocking band. What did change was only of marginal significance. During the beginning of his career, Wolf proved to be a masterful songwriter, penning many of the blues most lasting standards, while he later relied on songwriter Willie Dixon for his big hits and continued on with no less appeal. Although His Best doesn't compete with the historical picture that Muddy Waters's His Best provides, Waters's His Best doesn't compete with the pure bliss and consistency that this unbelievably stacked track-list offers. A+
